Pack Expo
I spent most of this week at Pack Expo, and it was, pardon the pun, "packed." I haven't been to a trade show with that many exhibitors and visitors in years. When several automation vendors told me that they were specifically targeting the packaging industry these days, it was easy to see why.
The packaging industry is quite broad encompassing machine builders, materials suppliers, automation technology providers and other assorted component manufacturers. It is also in the throes of great change. Traditional packaging machines have few control systems, are run mainly by lineshafts, cams, gears and pulleys. A movement primarily starting in Europe has arisen to replace those drives systems with servo control. Many American firms are balking at the redesign, trying to persuade people that single-purpose machines are better than flexible ones.
I have to say that I'm a little baffled by this approach. First, I have to say that I'm not a packaging machinery expert. My background with machinery is heavily automotive. But I've been concepting flexible machinery for almost 20 years. I worked with some companies to do a flexible packaging machine 10 years ago. It all seems so obvious to me--not to mention economically sound. A note of caution, though. Adding flexibility and automation does not mean to just throw a bunch of technology at a problem. Application of automation should always be done with a purpose in mind and with the minimum amount of complexity that still does the job.
The hottest new automation technologies I saw at the show was in the hotly competitive vision arena. Coreco imaging division ipd came out with a simple, easy-to-use, single-purpose vision "appliance" several years ago. There must be a market. Cognex (http://www.cognex.com) has come out with a new vision sensor for presence sensing. More than a proximity switch, it senses the presence of specific parts using a pattern matching algorithm. Across the aisle was Banner Engineering (http://www.bannerengineering.com) who has been moving into the vision sensor market from its solid base in photoelectrics. It also was showing an inexpensive vision sensor product. Omron Electronics (http://www.oei.omron.com) keeps shrinking its vision sensor package and making it perform faster, showing a new one at Pack Expo. DVT (http://www.dvtsensors.com) was also at the show showing its new software release as well as its washdown vision sensor demonstrated working under water. Omron also was touting its new partnership with Weber labeling systems and Domino printers which shepherds in a comprehensive RFID, bar code and human readable solution.
6:10:45 AM 
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