Intelligent movers: Packaging with multi-belt control

Together with Siemens, Meypack developed an Intelligent Belt multi-belt control solution for a high-speed continuous product transfer and positioning system.

Why do packaging customers love Intelligent Belt?

When a customer is so satisfied with the performance of a new machine that they immediately place a follow-up order for three more machines, then the machine manufacturer must have been doing something right. What’s been done right in this case: an innovative solution for high-speed continuous product transfer and positioning in a pouch packer developed by Meypack and Siemens. The solution uses the Intelligent Infeed and Intelligent Belt (iBelt) applications from Siemens. Both applications are part of the Siemens Packaging Toolbox, a comprehensive collection of pretested software libraries and function blocks for TIA Portal that have been designed specifically for automating packaging machines with SIMATIC controllers. This toolbox helps to significantly shorten engineering and commissioning times through the use of standard functions.

Key benefits

6x Gentler on products and machine

iBelt enables continuous operation of the machine, reducing the acceleration stress on the products and machine to one-sixth of the previous level. This reduces wear on the products and the machine.

50% Less maintenance

Having a system with continuous motion significantly reduces wear on mechanical parts such as bearings. This enabled the operator to skip a component change that would normally have been due after one year in operation.

60% More output

Depending on the product, iBelt can handle up to 400 products per minute without major changes to the application, giving Meypack greater freedom in design while reducing engineering expenses.

From idea to working prototype

For the Meypack pouch packer, Siemens enhanced the Intelligent Belt application with the feature for continuous product transfer and handling. The initiative enabling this development started even before that, says Bastian Schulz, electrical engineer and automation expert at Meypack: “We were working with Siemens application support to implement our machine functions with the SINAMICS S210 drives. During the meetings for this project, I had the idea that we could modify the product transfer to the paddle belt so that we could eliminate the starts and stops in the product flow. Siemens immediately acted on this, and just a few months later, they presented us with a simulation-ready program based on the Intelligent Belt application. This program worked almost instantly and was unbelievably smooth. We liked it a lot right from the start.”

Putting Intelligent Belt to the test

To test the application with the “real” machine mechanics, Meypack built a dedicated test rig. “We ran a paddle belt with sample products and the iBelt application, and the operation was perfectly smooth — no stops, no delays. We never would have expected that at such high transfer speeds,” Schulz explains. What’s notable about the SIMATIC Intelligent Belt application for multi-belt control is that individual products from the continuous infeed can be picked up and grouped together in an unloading position. Loading and unloading are implemented as independent operations. In the Meypack machine, one paddle belt is loaded while a second one is either in motion or being unloaded. This way, a more or less steady stream of single products can be grouped into multi-product bundles that can be packaged in trays or wrapped for dispatch and shipment.

How well the new system would perform in a customer application would become clear just three months later: Meypack was contracted to engineer a pouch packer for packing 500 g heavy pouches at a speed of 240 pouches per minute. “This combination of heavy pouches and high speed was quite challenging,” says Schulz. On top of this, the timeline was tight: The project had to be developed and delivered within just six months. “To meet the tight schedule, we brought Siemens into the project team to support us in developing the multi-belt control, and this worked really well. We received the simulation-ready program at the end of September and performed a successful factory acceptance test with the customer shortly thereafter.”

Reliable performance, day after day

Commissioning also went extremely well, with just a few minor hiccups: “One thing we had to adjust for was that in the real world the products do not arrive with absolutely equal spacing at the transfer station, but we were able to resolve this together with Siemens as well.” The iBelt solution has been running “like clockwork” ever since, Schulz confirms. The system is notably smoother in operation, a positive aspect that the customer also noticed, and requires virtually no manual intervention. “Because the product handling is so stable, the technicians rarely have to adjust parameters. The machine always works as it should, which means that we not only deliver the specified performance of 240 products per minute at commissioning, but we can also guarantee this performance over the long term,” he adds.

Using iBelt, we can handle the products perfectly smoothly, with no pulses, no stops. This reduces stress on the mechanical parts, and reducing stress reduces wear significantly.

Bastian Schulz, Electrical Engineer and Automation Expert, Meypack Verpackungssystemtechnik GmbH

Minor adjustments for major reuse

In the meantime, the follow-up projects are underway as well, with one line even packing 400, albeit lighter, pouches per minute. To automate this faster machine, Schulz had to make only minor adjustments: “iBelt will run the same way at 400 pouches per minute as at 240, so I could reuse the application almost exactly as it was. I can also use this functionality in other dynamic product handling solutions – for example, for eliminating stops in kinematics with two directions of movement. This reduces stress on the mechanical parts.” Less mechanical stress means less wear, which is already evident in the first machine. A component replacement that would normally have been due after one year in operation was avoided. “We’ll see whether we’ll be able to extend the maintenance intervals even further,” says Schulz.

Bastian Schulz Meypack Verpackungssystemtechnik GmbH