Technical data

PD_SysUebersSCL_us.fm
ELAU AG PacDrive page 15
3.1 Drive Concepts for Packaging Machines
Hard-copy for correction
3 System Overview
3.1 Drive Concepts for Packaging Machines
Modern machine concepts in the packaging industry are
characterized by the need for high dynamism, flexibility, modularity
and efficiency. Packaging machines were traditionally equipped
with a main drive and a mechanical main shaft, which coupled all
other motion organs in the machine usually with mechanical
components with complicated motion functions. Designing such
packaging machines flexibly for different products is a highly
complex task. Even minor changes in the packaging process,
particularly in case of a product change, require major
modifications and down time.
Packaging machines with electronic vertical shafts, by contrast,
permit full flexibility. Electronic servo drive systems replace cam
and coupling gears, and a virtual electronic main shaft ensures that
the motion axes are synchronous. Any pulse and angle
synchronous movements are determined by a central controller.
Unplanned machine states, such as stop or emergency off
situations and initialization movements, can be realized angle-
synchronously. Dynamic changes of the goods to be packed or the
packaging material in the plant (like slippage of the products to be
packed or expansion of the packaging material) can be detected by
sensors while the machine is running and eliminated by modifying
the corresponding drive movements. This development
substantially changes and highly simplifies the classical mechanical
machine concept. The structure of the packaging machine can be
broken down into modules that are easy apply and standardize.