Econo-Pack; Flonheim (Germany) How to move a fish finger Packing fish fingers for about 300,000 children’s meals in one shift is quite an achievement. The throughput of 1.25 million fish fingers can be achieved on two packing lines from Econo-Pak. The clever automation concept consistently uses the flexibility of Totally Integrated Automation. The two coordinated, identical lines with their more than 74 Profibus users are controlled by a single CPU – the technology CPU 317T-2 DP. The line redundancy guarantees the required process reliability and also allows an asymmetrical workload. Econo-Pak in Flonheim near Alzey is one of the leading manufacturers of box assemblers, closing, boxing and banding machines for foods and beverages. Cost-effectiveness, reliability and flexibility have earned the machines a worldwide reputation. The fish finger packing machine can pack horizontally and vertically and in two layers for a number of different box sizes for example. It can pack the popular fish fingers in all the normal box variants without any great conversion effort. An essential recipe for the success of Econo-Pak is the high production depth and highly productive production method. Homogeneous drive and automation technology accelerates the production of series and individual assemblies. This means that many of the standard machines can be built within a few weeks. Econo-Pak equips its machines with Siemens automation systems as a standard, a fact much appreciated by customers. Parallel processing with many drives A distinguishing feature of the new modular fish finger packing machine are two parallel packing lines. The kitchen-ready fish fingers are fed from the froster to the two lines on sorting belts and are aligned and grouped by guide rails and delay sections ready for the grabber during their transport on shaker belts. In the meantime the folding box assembler feeds the boxes ready for packing to a specially developed Econo-Pak grabber. The grabber picks up a layer of fish fingers from the belt, places it in the waiting box and transport continues to the closer. Depending on the type of box, the discharge belts of the closing machines of the two packing lines converge via cross dischargers by different routes. The user can adjust the adhesive portioning and pressure during operation with small Simatic OP7 operator panels on each of the two folded box assemblers and the two closers. The packing machine is controlled by a single, centrally arranged Simatic Multi Panel MP370. It visualizes the complete machines, collects fault and operating data for both lines and saves recipes for the various types of folded boxes. All the machine parameters are set to the new box type at the press of a button with these recipes. In this way, machine movements which depend on the dimensions of the box can be adapted to the new format program-controlled and electronically without mechanical adjustments – a direct benefit of the Simatic motion control technology because all machine components are networked with the central technology CPU by Profibus. One controller for everything This packing process involves a total of 47 Micromaster and 16 Masterdrives drives. More than 300 I/Os are required for linking the pneumatics, sensors and actuators. All the signals run through the Simatic ET 200S peripheral modules distributed over the machine. Overview of plant configuration his complex interaction of individual elements is controlled centrally by the technology CPU 317T-2 DP. The technology CPU can also handle technology and motion control functions in addition to the PLC functionality. Components under the normal S7 programming environment are available to the user for all these functions meaning he does not need to learn any additional tools or programming languages. PLCopenconform components are interconnected under the normal S7 programming environment so that the desired functionality is achieved. All components of the machine communicate with the central Simatic control as we have already said via Profibus DP. This means that the diagnostic and service functions can intervene right through to the individual drives, actuators and sensors both from the operator panel and in the scope of teleservice. The individual machines modules are connected with each other by repeaters. Local PLC functions of the modules are performed by the intelligent ET 200S stations. With this mix of central and distributed control, Econo-Pak has a flexible modular system of standard modules with which they can respond quickly to special customer requests. Finally the individual modules can be preinstalled, commissioned and adapted independently of the total machine. The homogeneity of the engineering tools simplifies the functional structuring of the user program for a distributed implementation of the machine functions. In addition the creation of universally usable functions and function libraries is comfortably supported. The fine graduation of the wide range of available systems and components of Totally Integrated Automation allows individual tailormade automation solutions. High throughput and availability Econo-Pak has developed the automation concept of the fish finger packing machine in cooperation with Siemens – and they are delighted with the economy of the solution. The efficient technology CPU shows what it is capable of: Whilst fulfilling the required functionality the machine easily achieves the high target throughput of 2,600 products per minute despite the large number of drives and peripheral signals. The affected line can be relieved in the event of a fault due to the parallel installation with a common controller: The performance of the other line is simply increased because the clever automation and operating concept also allows asymmetrical loading of the two packing lines. Used intelligently, the redundant design guarantees higher throughput and availability. The machine owner attaches great importance to the availability and process reliability because the fish fingers must be passed on ready packed to the next station in the deep freeze chain in a narrowly calculated time window. Even the slightest fault in the process leads to defrosting of the perishable frozen goods. Not only the structural redundancy of the machine but also the homogeneous automation solution from one provider is an advantage here. Motion World 1 / 2005