The perfect motion control for printing

Focus on the MLC solution integrated in the ctrlX DRIVE system from Bosch Rexroth, a globally recognized supplier of drives and controls.

Versatility is the keyword for modern printing machines. The customization and the increase of printing operations on packaging in small batches require the optimization of setup times and format change, ensuring high levels of profitability without sacrificing precision and productivity. How? By ensuring an increasingly high degree of connectivity and data sharing with other machine modules or higher level systems. The MLC solution integrated with the Bosch Rexroth ctrlX DRIVE system is now the motion control system capable of meeting all these requirements.

Integration and flexibility

To ensure modern, integrated machine automation, manufacturers of printing and packaging machines need the highest degree of freedom. This means great flexibility in all motion applications, thanks to innovative software and firmware functions, simplified engineering tasks and open interfaces.

Today, through the integration of motion, robotics and logic control in a flexible control platform, users can synchronize multi-axis applications very easily: with an extremely scalable system combined with a range of technology functions suitable for centralized or decentralized solutions.

Logic, motion, robotics and hydraulics in one solution

As the technology leader in motion control applications for printing machines, Bosch Rexroth makes it easy to meet all these requirements with the IndraMotion MLC solution, the most efficient motion control system available on the market today, capable of managing up to 192 axes. The solution includes an extensive library of modules and provides technology functions that meet the full range of printing industry needs. These functions can be used to calculate winder control parameters, or for the electronic synchronization of high-precision rolls. The simple configuration of the tensioning system ensures stable operations in all areas of the machine.

A drive for every motion control need

Thanks to the wide range of servo drives managed by the new system, machine manufacturers can select the right product for their specific needs: from the smallest 150 watt drives through the whole range of available powers up to 4 MW.

The control units can be centrally grouped or decentralized in machine modules within the control cabinet. Alternatively, they can be integrated in the machine without the need for control cabinets and with minimal space requirements. By combining the different systems according to requirements, each customer is able to achieve his own optimal concept drive.

For example, the ctrlX DRIVE control system, the most compact modular drive system currently available on the market, can interact with the MLC motion control system. Users can use AxisInterface, the proven standard interface, to control all axes of the system via a simple function block.

In this way, the high-precision synchronization of the presses’ complex multi-axis system can be configured very quickly and easily.

With the ctrlX AUTOMATION system, users can gain integrated functionality in the areas of security, connectivity and IoT. The new automation platform, which includes a wide range of software and hardware solutions, features a real-time Linux operating system, 100 percent open standards such as OPC UA, app-based programming technology, web-based design interfaces and IoT connectivity features.

Thanks to the platform’s degree of openness, migration to new solutions with ctrlX AUTOMATION can be implemented easily and tailored to individual needs.