PC-based control optimizes packaging machines

Fast, flexible and efficient: Beckhoff’s XTS - eXtended Transport System is an example of replacing conventional mechanics with software functionality.

Modular machine design is the key prerequisite for meeting increasing batch diversification and smaller production quantities, with the goal of adapting more complex workflows to new products at the click of a mouse, minimizing the need for mechanical changes.

According to Beckhoff, the benefits of this approach extend far beyond customized products: time to market is reduced, which can give the machine user a decisive advantage over the competition, and is especially important when new products are introduced.

Software- and PC-based machine controls are also key to implementing modern Industry 4.0 concepts. Because they are open to the IT world, they provide the ideal basis for sending detailed machine and production data to higher-level ERP systems and/or the cloud.

Analysis of this data enables highly efficient energy and lifecycle management, resulting in improved sustainability by minimizing energy and resource use. By opening new avenues for making production planning and control more efficient, cloud service solutions offer enormous potential for savings.

With production systems available, machines can be optimally utilized, whether they are located on-site or distributed around the world.

XTS and the new design

One example of replacing conventional mechanics with software capabilities is XTS - eXtended Transport System, which opens the door to a new level of innovation in machine design.
The implementation of control and handling tasks with highly flexible configurable motor and mover modules, which can be controlled as individual servo axles, greatly simplifies the mechanics of the machines, which are thus much more compact and require much less wiring.

This design also allows manufacturers and end users to quickly replace, modify or add modules, making it much easier to adapt to new products and market requirements.

XTS integrates everything into a single system. Thanks to this possibility and the unique, compact design, the system footprint is reduced by up to 30%, thus enabling space optimization. It also offers the important advantage of decoupling the machine cycle from the duration of individual processing steps, for example by installing time-consuming processing stations several times along the transport route.

This optimizes material flow and improves productivity.

With the help of XTS and PC-based control, operators can monitor the entire process themselves, perform quality checks and sampling, and perform format changes quickly and easily, without interrupting production. All this benefits the production lines as well as all company departments.