Packaging machinery design may be impacted by NIST R&D

R&D activities related to smart assembly at the National Institute of Science and Technology may have direct impact on packaging machinery design.

Dale Hall, Director of the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory (MEL) of NIST reported on the vision and needs for smart assembly at the 11th annual ARC Forum held last month in Orlando. One of the goals is to eliminate hard safety fencing and barriers that are commonly associated with robots that keep people and robots separated and thus unable to perform collaborative operations.

This technology could most certainly be applied to packaging machines that employ robotic arms or to non-robotic machines that are equipped with safety barriers. Safety barriers are a necessary evil to protect employees; but they add cost, increase complexity, consume floor space, complicate sanitation and severly limit or slow down human interaction with the machine. New safety standards, specialized safety features on controllers and the efforts of NIST and its consortium may lead to acceptable methods of eliminating barriers on machines, thus allowing machinery manufacturers to provide more value to their customers.

I don't know if the packaging machinery industry has a history of collaboration with NIST. I have frequently seen NIST working with the machine tool industry. I suppose the link to national defense is more apparent there. But, without proper and efficient packaging, national defense logistics would be a nightmare. Collaboratioin could lead to better and more timely solutions for all.

Other NIST R&D activities that may affect packaging machinery include equipment monitoring and condition maintenance, wireless performance and interoperability, and industrial control systems security. You can explore more NIST MEL activities here.

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