Mitsubishi Electric Automation Q Series Elevates Packaging Technology


Northville, Mich. - October 3, 2005 - Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc., a leading supplier of factory automation solutions, and Elopak, a global leader in paper carton filling machines for the juice and dairy industries, have taken packaging technology to new heights by implementing electric servo control as a replacement for traditional mechanical devices. The new design is expected to eliminate half the mechanical devices in a typical filling machine and significantly reduce assembly time, while also improving performance and reliability.

The P-S50S gable top carton filling machine, currently in limited production in Sweden, incorporates Mitsubishi Electric's advanced Q Series Automation Platform and MR-J2 Super Servos. These join seamlessly in a multiprocessor system integrating complex servo motion with machine logic control.

"Our goal was to reduce assembly time and material costs in manufacturing the machine by simplifying its operations," said Kenneth Poublon, project engineer for Elopak. "After carefully evaluating several servo and motion control vendors, we chose Mitsubishi Electric's Q Series Automation Platform because it integrates several types of automation processes on the same system. Plus, Mitsubishi Electric brings unmatched expertise in automated processes."

Many of today's packaging machines use mechanical drive components, such as line shafts, gearboxes, cams, chains, belts, pulleys and clutches. These mechanisms can be complex to assemble and adjust, may limit machine performance in a variety of ways, and could require substantial maintenance.

Substituting electrical servo components can simplify machine construction, unlock performance gains, add reliability, improve flexibility and extend maintenance intervals. Advanced control system diagnostics can report machine conditions and aid in fault diagnosis and repair and the technology exists to use the Internet to monitor and remotely diagnose machine problems from thousands of miles away.

The Mitsubishi Electric solution combines all desirable packaging system functions into one high performance system.

"The Q Series Automation Controller is the most advanced control now available, because it shares complex operations across several processors with extremely rapid response," says Leroy Bowman, Motion Control Specialist for Mitsubishi Electric Automation. "By seamlessly integrating sequence control, complex servo motion profiles, continuous process control, operator touch screens for setup and easy adjustments for varying product viscosities, much of the traditional mechanical components and their associated issues can be eliminated from the machine."

For example, one processor (CPU) can coordinate 32 servo axes, each performing complex cam motion profiles. A second CPU handles high speed standard I/O, and temperature (heat sealing) control, while a third CPU can serve as an Intel-based Windows PC that runs third-party software for data collection and reporting to the customer's enterprise system. All this comes in a modular rack-based system, which takes up an extremely small footprint of 4 x 17 inches.

During development of the P-S50S prototype, designers from Elopak, Mitsubishi Electric Automation and their distributor, SunSource, studied each mechanical aspect of the previous machine generation. Many mechanical requirements were reproduced using Mitsubishi Electric's Q Series Motion Processor, unique software and servos. The Q Series Motion Control software allows the machine designer to use "virtual mechanical devices" such as gear boxes, clutches, line shafts, differential gears, cams, and more, which only exist as graphical elements in software. The end result is coordinated, high speed complex servo motion profiles.

After several months of testing at an Elopak facility in Spikkestad, Norway, the new machine is currently in limited production at a Swedish beta test site to determine the cost advantages and efficiencies to be gained by using a servo-based machine instead of a mechanical one.

"It could take up to a year to get hard numbers on the specific cost savings in relation to the construction of the machines and the operational production process," said Poublon. "But once the beta testing is complete, we anticipate that the technology used in the prototype P-S50S machine can be easily incorporated into the design of future machines with much faster runtimes."

Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Elopak and SunSource are developing additional machine designs for their customers.

About Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc.
Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc., based in Vernon Hills, Ill., is an affiliate of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, a $40 billion global company, and serves a wide variety of industrial markets with a broad range of factory automation application solutions. Mitsubishi Electric is currently the largest worldwide manufacturer of programmable logic controllers, based on the number of units sold. Other products include automation platforms, industrial PCs, variable frequency drives, operator interfaces, servo motion control systems, and computer numerical controls.

For more information on Mitsubishi Electric Automation, visit www.meau.com.

About Elopak
Elopak, Inc. is the North American business unit of the global Elopak Group.
Best known for PURE-PAK® gable-top cartons and fillers, the company also supplies caps, bottle and portion pack fillers, extrusion blow molders, and materials handling equipment. For more information on Elopak, visit www.elopak.com.

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