A sustainable approach is the need of the hour in view to providing ‘green’ future and therefore every manufacturer is now concentrating on adapting to support and create products and services in a sustainable manner.
Packaging contributes to a major share of the economy and as per a recent market research published, packaging generates the maximum global waste as well. Thus, it is the responsibility of packaging manufacturers to start by taking proper steps to adapt to ‘sustainable packaging’.
Adapting to sustainable packaging
The packaging industry is consumer driven and with recent demands, the importance of adapting to sustainable awareness has increased, this has led the manufacturers to focus on their active projects which are mainly designed to look at sustainable material options for their products. Every section of the market is switching to building a sustainable future or strategizing its ways to build one. Consumers too are becoming more aware of the environmental impacts of the products they consume and thus complying with the growing desire for eco-friendly products.
The Sustainable Development Goals set out by the UN in 2015 are adopted as the 2030 agenda for sustainable development in manufacturing, especially for the packaging sector. Globally, sustainability has created a great stir in the packaging world and as per recent reports by 2030, the major players will ‘go green’ with their sustainability approach which will further help to develop and build a strong customer base and gain a major portion of the market. This will lead packaging industry manufacturers to invest a lot in their products offering. Every year the manufacturers look for adding value to the brand – sustainability adds value to the brand, apart from securing a better future, it also draws the consumer market.
Considering the pressure from the regulatory bodies for a greener and ecofriendly future end users and OEMs are finding solutions to implement ‘smart factory’ solutions that merge automation and IT technology and help improve the life cycle of their products, transparency throughout the supply chain, increasing efficiency, optimizing costs, and opening up new opportunities for improvement.
Innovations for sustainability
B&R has always addressed how companies can best meet the challenges of a sustainable future. Industry 4.0 calls for an adaptation to newer technologies and innovations for OEMs, end users and system integrators, mainly to help them evolve through sustainable innovation. B&R offers innovative products and solutions for all types of packaging machinery – from primary and secondary packaging to end-of-line solutions. Innovation’s product portfolio adheres to unique requirements and helps OEM set new standards for flexible, productive, efficient packaging technology and creating adaptive machines that bring real competitive advantages.
Today, to remain competitive, one must create a platform for continuous innovation. It is believed innovations around artificial intelligence, machine and factory automation will play an essential role in unlocking the potential of future industrial production in manufacturing sectors. They will increase productivity and flexibility, helping customers become more sustainable and produce closer to their end markets. All the above are related to packaging solutions which will boost more innovations by providing a sustainable approach. Small batch is a sustainable and more eco-friendly method as per recent research papers published because it doesn’t require assembly lines and large amounts of raw materials. There is very little waste involved and it doesn’t require large amounts of electricity or water.
To meets the sustainable demands of a packaging manufacturer, if we look into new inventions, the path breaker ACOPOS 6D is fully integrated into the B&R ecosystem that helps manufacturer achieve sustainable goals. ACOPOS 6D is based on the principle of magnetic levitation – shuttles with integrated permanent magnets float over the surface of electromagnetic motor segments. The modular motor segments are 240 x 240 millimeters in size and can be arranged freely in any shape.
A variety of shuttle sizes carry payloads of 0.6 to 14 kilograms and reach speeds up to 2 meters per second. They can move freely in two-dimensional space, rotate and tilt along three axes and offer precise control over the height of levitation. Altogether, that gives them six degrees of motion control freedom. It also allows the shuttles to be synchronized with servo axes, robots, track systems and machine vision cameras with microsecond precision.
Path planning for the shuttles occurs in a dedicated controller, connected to the machine network via POWERLINK which means it has no impact on the performance of the network or machine control system. The shuttles offer a positioning repeatability of ±5 µm, making ACOPOS 6D perfectly suited for applications with strict positioning requirements, like those for example in the electronics packing and in the assembly of mechanical and electronic components packaging.
ACOPOS 6D offers nearly limitless possibilities in machine design yet is remarkably easy to set up. Sophisticated algorithms ensure the shuttles follow an optimal path while avoiding collisions and minimizing energy consumption. Thus, this small changes inside the manufacturing hub are the solution every packaging manufacturer is looking for today to help create a secure and sustainable manufacturing system.
