On a chocolate packaging production line, operator Lao Zhang stared at the equipment parameter screen - the packaging film frequently deviated slightly during high-speed operation, resulting in a scrap rate of up to 3% per hour. This tiny error not only wastes materials, but also affects the delivery time of orders. It was not until the servo drive technology of the new generation of ply-pack pillow packaging machines was put into use that Lao Zhang's troubles were solved: the equipment automatically compensated for the difference in film ductility, and the scrap rate dropped to less than 0.2%.
As the "nerve center" of the pillow packaging machine, the servo drive technology has achieved three major innovations through the five-axis linkage control system:
Traditional mechanical transmission relies on gear sets to adjust the tension of the packaging film, and response delays often cause film wrinkles or excessive stretching. The servo system dynamically adjusts the speed of the unwinding motor at a speed of 0.01 seconds by feeding back the photoelectric sensor data in real time. When packaging puffed food, even in the face of high-speed operation of 120 packages per minute, the tension fluctuation of the film material can still be controlled within the range of ±5N to ensure accurate alignment of the sealing and cutting positions.
Temperature fluctuation of the heat sealing knife is one of the culprits of the bag breaking problem. The servo drive technology integrates the environmental temperature and humidity sensor and the infrared thermal imaging module. When the local temperature of the sealing knife is detected to drop, the servo motor power is automatically increased to compensate for the heat loss. The measured data of a nut production enterprise showed that under the condition of sudden changes in temperature and humidity in the workshop, the standard deviation of the heat sealing strength was reduced from the original 18% to 4%.
Traditional equipment often uses constant power operation to ensure peak performance, resulting in up to 40% of no-load energy consumption waste. The servo system automatically switches to energy-saving mode during the waiting period of the pillow packaging machine through the load sensing algorithm, reducing the motor standby power consumption to 15% of the running state. After a condiment factory in Guangdong connected to this technology, a single device saved more than 12,000 kWh of electricity per year.
This set of technical solutions has shown a transformative impact in many fields:
·Pharmaceutical industry: In blister board packaging, the servo system accurately controls the aluminum foil feeding speed, so that the tablet positioning error is ≤0.3mm, meeting the strict requirements of GMP certification for Braille printing.
·Fresh food e-commerce: Develop a special control algorithm for low-temperature environment for cold chain packaging needs. When the ambient temperature is lower than 10℃, the film preheating temperature is automatically increased and the heat sealing time is extended to solve the problem of low-temperature embrittlement of PE film.
·Cross-border logistics: Through servo drive technology, air cushion packaging and pillow packaging are integrated, and the dual processes of commodity cushioning protection and sealing and moisture-proofing are completed on a single device, and the transportation damage rate is reduced by 80%.
The ply-pack technical team is working hard to promote the three major upgrades of servo drive technology:
.AI predictive adjustment: Based on historical data, the machine learning model is trained to predict the expansion and contraction characteristics of different film materials, and the parameter compensation program is started 12 seconds in advance.
.Cross-device collaborative control: Through 5G communication, the servo systems of multiple pillow packaging machines are linked, and the load of each machine is automatically balanced in the mixed production line.
.Carbon footprint visualization: The energy consumption tracking module is integrated into the control screen to display the carbon emission data of a single batch of packaging in real time, helping enterprises build a green supply chain.
The afternoon sun shines obliquely in the laboratory, and engineer Xiao Wang is testing the latest generation of servo drives. On the oscilloscope screen, the green curve representing the tension waveform is almost a straight line, with only slight disturbances at the moment of changing the roll. "Look, this is the effect of the algorithm upgrade," he pointed to the red warning mark that suddenly appeared on the screen, "the system has predicted that the film roll is about to run out, and notified the preparation of materials 3 minutes in advance." These jumping data are quietly rewriting the technical boundaries of automated packaging.
