How can packaging become more sustainable without losing speed or flexibility? Swabian machine builder Hugo Beck found the answer with innovative thinking, the right partners and the Digital Twin, a resource-saving machine that wraps products in paper, batch size 1.
Hugo Beck’s packaging machines are as unique as its customers’ requirements, but they all have one thing in common. Thanks to solutions from Siemens, Hugo Beck can adopt a holistic approach in order to implement innovative machine concepts faster. In this case, innovation means not only maximum performance, but also energy- and resource-efficiency for boosting sustainability.
Hugo Beck's machines are as unique as its customers' requirements, but they all share one thing in common. Thanks to solutions from Siemens, Hugo Beck can take a holistic approach to implementing innovative machine concepts faster. Innovation here means not only maximum performance, but also energy and resource efficiency to boost sustainability. The Swabian machine builder has had such positive experiences with the Siemens portfolio that it will rely on it even more extensively in the future.
Working with Siemens, Hugo Beck's engineers developed and successfully launched the paper e-com fit: a sustainable packaging machine for e-commerce and mail order that uses recyclable paper instead of plastic and adapts packaging to each product's dimensions rather than relying on standard sizes.
Thanks to the Digital Twin, the commissioning time for the paper e-com fit could be reduced by about 50 percent compared to the time usually required.
Thanks to the latest highly energy-efficient devices from the Siemens portfolio, energy consumption was reduced by 15 to 20 percent.
Compared to earlier packaging machines, the paper e-com fit uses more than 30 percent less packaging material.
The new Siemens tools, for example tools for simulations which of course also includes the digital twin, give us access to whole new worlds and possibilities, including collaboration with customers. Whether in a sales talk, for training, maintenance or overall configuration, you can't go wrong with the digital twin
At Hugo Beck, the Digital Twin is playing an ever greater role: First, in the area of development, because fewer real prototypes are required and better results can be achieved within a shorter period of time thanks to simulations, and second in the area of sales because a virtual counterpart can be used to provide customers with an advance demonstration of all the characteristics of their machines.
Hugo Beck’s long-standing collaboration with Siemens paid off when developing the paper e-com fit. Thanks to the SIMATIC S7‑1500 T CPU, SIMATIC MICRO-DRIVE drives, SIMATIC HMI Unified Comfort Panels, and engineering with TIA Portal, engineers at Hugo Beck were able to develop a machine with optimized performance and quality and reduce energy consumption by 15 to 20 percent.
Hugo Beck and Siemens weren’t the only ones to closely collaborate on the development of the paper e-com fit machine with the goal of optimally meeting customer requirements. Suppliers of paper, string, sewing machines, and glues were also part of the partner ecosystem and shared the necessary knowledge with one another.
I'm grateful, I'd say, that Siemens has also opened its doors to us at Hugo Beck. In the collaboration and joining forces to develop something together, we are now currently well ahead of the competition in our industry.
At 'The Impact' Digital Enterprise Experience Center (DEX) at Siemens' F80 location in Erlangen, Germany, you can experience firsthand the paper e-com fit machine that we developed together with Hugo Beck. You can trace the path from the concept to the Digital Twin, commissioning and, of course, operation of the real machine, and discover how linking the real and digital worlds supported development and implementation.
