Packaging applications of linear motors debut at Interpack

Linear motors have been slow to catch on in packaging, but several applications appeared at this year's Interpack. It's time to put linear motors on your company's technology plan.

I was first made aware of the potential benefits of linear electric motors by a college dorm mate in 1968. Exotic applications have been around for decades and the machine tool industry has used linear motors for a while. It has taken a long time, but over the past five years, I have become aware of several patents related to linear motor applications in packaging and have heard a gradually increasing level of discussion about the same. There may have been other applications that I missed in the expanse of Interpack, but Rovema had three families of machines on display utilizing linear motor technology.

Rovema's VPL (L for Linear) family of vertical pillow baggers uses a specially built patent-pending combination of both a moving magnet and a moving coil motor to control the position of the head. The linear motors provide stiff, fast and flexible motion profiles with high acceleration and about a 22% increase in efficiency, according to Rovema. With motor controls by Bosch-Rexroth, the machine has the ability to process difficult films at higher output rates. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to see the motors that are buried inside of the machine.

Rovema used more conventional Baumueller linear motors in its ETIL tray packer and as an infeed synchronization mechanism for the Rick Lidington-designed continuous motion cartoner that made its debut at Interpack. The tray packer used 6 axes of linear motors for a reported 20 to 25% gain in performance and a 5% higher cost.

B&R Automation displayed a third-party-developed picking robot using two ironless linear motors bent into arcs and a third in a straight configuration to provide the major degrees of freedom. These motors provided the robot arm with acceleration up to 100 meters per second squared, maximum speeds of between 5 and 7.2 meters per second and maximum torque up to 1036 Newton meters operating in a working envelope of 1.8 meters diameter. The need for this capability in packaging is unclear, but the robot attracted a great deal of attention and demonstrated the performance and stiffness of linear motor applications and the ability of B&R to control them.

I made it a point to inquire about linear technology at every opportunity. It was interesting that both the president of a leading German packaging machinery company and the president of a major German motion control company both told me to expect six more years until linear applications really take off in packaging. This is about the same lengh of time that I remember between the first appearance of a servo-based wrapper at Interpack and the widespread adoption of servos in packaging machines.

Every company involved with packaging operations or machinery should have a technology plan that looks at least five years into the future. With linear motors expected to gain wide acceptance in six, it is now time to begin asking how linear motors can be applied in your business. Write linear into your technology plan now. If your company doesn't have a written technology plan, maybe this is an opportunity to create one. If you need guidance on how to do it, give me a call.

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Comments Good day: was going to post a link to your linear motors blog in our New Equipment Digest motion control E-newsletter. What's the driving force behind more linear motors applications in packaging? Energy savings? Increased efficiency/speed in packaging? Reduced waste in the process? Michael Keating Online Content Editor Government Product News�goes to 85,000 government administrators; read by 300,000 Government Procurement�goes to 23,500 public purchasing directors New Equipment Digest�goes to 212,000 manufacturing executives Occupational Hazards Magazine-goes to 73,000 safety, health, and environmental professionals www.govpro.com www.newequipment.com www.occupationalhazards.com PH 800-366-1901 or 216-931-9657 Fax 913-514-6745 Penton Media 1300 East 9th St. Cleveland, OH 44114 Note--my E-mail address has changed michael.keating@penton.com Posted by: m.keating on May 13, 2008 Post a comment (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) Name: Email Address: URL: Remember personal info? Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style) Type the word 'packaging' (required):