Call Us Today 800.969.7772 | sales@rrfloody.com
Call Us Today 800.969.7772 | sales@rrfloody.com
The packaging industry has been experiencing change driven by several significant trends. Given the economic climate, the ongoing labor challenges, and shifts in consumer attitudes toward more environmentally friendly packaging, manufacturers are seeking to find a competitive advantage by focusing on four major initiatives: operational efficiency, digitalization, personalized manufacturing, and sustainability. One common thread? Machine vision can have a positive impact on all four.
A key metric for measuring manufacturing productivity is Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), which identifies the percentage of manufacturing time that is truly productive. An OEE score of 100% means you are manufacturing only good parts as fast as possible, with no stoppages. Factors that decrease OEE include downtime due to machine adjustments, long product changeover times, and higher defect rates.
A recent trend to increase the OEE of packaging processes is leveraging robotic automation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many manufacturers invested in fully automated solutions to reduce contamination risks and to increase output rates due to labor challenges. For example, the food and pharmaceutical industries use pick-and-place robots to reach high efficiency and quality production targets while minimizing contamination risks.
Cognex provides industry-leading vision software solutions for vision-guided robotics (VGR) applications. Compact In-Sight vision systems are easy to set up and calibrate, enabling quick location and alignment of patterns and reference points, even under adverse conditions or high levels of degradation. With high accuracy, automatic hand-eye calibration, flexible robot integration library, PLC integration, and a small footprint, In-Sight vision systems are the preferred choice for machine builders in the packaging industry needing highly accurate robotic automation for assembly and process applications.
Industry 4.0 is driving change in the packaging industry as manufacturers seek to capitalize on emerging innovations using advanced automation. Machine vision, Big Data, cloud computing, and machine learning are revolutionizing manufacturing processes. Moving towards Industry 4.0 presents an opportunity to digitalize processes, which can bolster productivity, reduce waste, improve product quality, enhance manufacturing flexibility, and decrease operating costs. Implementing a digitalization strategy also presents an opportunity to address ongoing labor shortage challenges.
With an eye towards Industry 4.0, innovative machine vision technology providers, such as Cognex, create valuable digital data for two purposes. First, capturing real-time information such as inspection and measurement data facilitates automatic in-line quality decisions via closed-loop feedback. In addition, companies see great value in aggregating this data over time, performing offline analytics, and using the resulting insights to drive continuous improvement and predictive maintenance. Cognex vision systems facilitate the digitalization of quality control processes through easy integration into industrial networks via standard communication and file transfer protocols such as TCP/IP, PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, SLMP, OPC/UA, and FTP.
The global trend towards going green has created challenges for many manufacturers, including packaging companies. Engaging in sustainable practices is no longer just “nice to do” — it’s increasingly becoming the standard.
Manufacturers are opting for environmentally friendly mono-material, paper, or biodegradable plastic alternatives to move to more sustainable practices. While using paper for secondary and end-of-line packaging is well established, primary packaging still has a way to go. In addition to the drive towards more eco-friendly materials, smaller, thinner, and more innovative packaging options are becoming more common.
The transition from traditional plastic sealing films to biodegradable films can be complex, as parameters such as pressure, temperature, and time need to be adjusted. As a supplier to leading packaging OEM machine builders, Cognex supports the trend towards sustainable packaging, and we work closely with our OEM partners to deliver innovative vision technology that facilitates this transition.
Our partners leverage our machine vision, AI, and barcode reading technologies portfolio to improve quality, reduce waste, and drive a more sustainable manufacturing process. Cognex machine vision technology helps our OEMs deliver the following benefits to their customers as part of their journey toward delivering more sustainable packaging solutions.
To target their consumer audiences more effectively, manufacturers are increasingly turning towards creating more personalized products. This might include putting names on soft drink cans, creating small batches of medicine that target patients with specific genetic markers, and promotions that reflect ongoing high-profile events, such as the Super Bowl or the World Cup. While these initiatives are intended to sell more products, they present major challenges to manufacturers and packaging companies. Usually, the personalized approach means shorter production runs, more batches, and more frequent changeovers.
How does this affect product quality? Small-scale, high-frequency manufacturing leads to more opportunities for defects due to frequent product changeovers and a higher risk for product mix-ups. In the food and beverage and pharmaceutical industries, product mix-ups have the potential to endanger people’s health due to allergies or bad reactions, which in turn can lead to costly recalls.
Packaging OEMs play a large role in this process by building agile machines that facilitate fast format changeovers and decrease unplanned stoppages using digital tools. In addition, OEMs that create machines that are flexible enough to handle a variety of materials help fill the customization requirement while maximizing OEE.
Machine vision plays a key role here because most packaging machines have a post-production inspection process to control quality or verify labels and lot codes. Given the complexities of frequent product changeovers and the variety of materials used in packaging, traditional machine vision tools are less capable in the world of personalized manufacturing.
Innovative technology from Cognex lets OEMs step up to offer new solutions to these challenges. Edge learning, for example, relies only on a few samples to train an inspection system on “Good” or “No Good” products, which is extremely valuable during frequent changeovers. The easy-to-use edge learning technology significantly reduces the amount of defective products that find their way into the supply chain.
As OEMs strategize on how to help their customers take advantage of major packaging trends such as increasing OEE, digitalization, sustainability, and personalized manufacturing, they should strongly consider how machine vision systems and AI-based technology can add value to their machines. As a leader in machine vision, barcode reading, and AI-based technology, Cognex would love to partner with you as you navigate this process.
R.R.Floody Company, Inc. | 5065 27th Avenue | Rockford, IL 61109
