October 2019

35 www.drivesncontrols.com October 2019 MACHINE BUILDING n How to squeeze six packaging machines into the space of one F or more than 40 years, Derby-based Riverside Medical Packaging has been offering contract manufacturing and machine development services to the healthcare industry. The company specialises in innovative ways of producing, packaging and sterilising single-use medical devices. One of its latest developments is a compact thermoforming sealing machine that allows manufacturers to replace 20m-long packing lines with a single machine that is less than 2m long. The reduced footprint of the new machine can release a large amount of valuable floor space in clean-room production environments, offering significant cost and productivity attractions. The Shawpak machine can be loaded manually or, for increased speed, using an integrated robot. The key innovation is the forming, packing and sealing process which is now carried out on a drum, rather than using a linear conveyor system. The product to be packed is loaded on top of the drum and the finished packet is ejected into a discharge conveyor underneath. The webs of packaging materials (such as PET or polyethylene sheets) plus the forming, sealing and cutting stations, are positioned around the drum. The machine’s rotary design increases its versatility and flexibility. Different forming drums can be supplied with cavities of various sizes. The drums can be removed and replaced easily to pack objects of different sizes and shapes on the same machine. In addition, the new concept ensures that every piece of packaging material is used, reducing the amount of waste from cut material that occurs when using other designs. “The Shawpak helps customers reduce the cost of maintaining a cleanroom production environment and to maximise their return on investment,”says Riverside’s CEO, David Shaw. The compact, flexible machine can be configured in many ways to suit individual applications. The machines start at only 1.5m long, and can occupy less than 2m 2 of floorspace.“In extreme cases, they will occupy just a small percentage of the space required by an alternative traditional form-fill-sealing (FFS) line,”Shaw explains. Riverside’s technical manager, Ivor Rowe, adds:“A comparable FFS machine can be anywhere from 7m to 20m in length, depending on the packaging process requirements, occupying a working space of up to 40m 2 . A given cleanroom space can fit six times more packing machines with a Shawpak design, increasing both productivity and throughput.” When developing the newmachine, the Riverside teamwas confident that there was a market for such a product, but knew that the automation package would be a key part of the development. The rotary motion of the drum and the precision indexing of the sealing film required precision servo controls to achieve synchronisation, while controls would also be needed for the suction systems that are used to manipulate the products and their packaging. “This was a completely new concept for us,” Shaw explains. Having developed the initial concept, Riverside turned to Mitsubishi Electric to help develop its vision into a fast, efficient and reliable machine. Mitsubishi came up with a compact integrated control system that was key to optimising the machine’s performance while keeping within a small target envelope. “The size of the control panel in the Shawpak is not only much smaller than in a traditional FFS machine, but is one of the most compact we have ever seen,”says Mitsubishi’s Stephen Thornton.“For this reason, we suggested using the Melsec L-Series PLC to provide a compact solution with optimal performance.” The PLC is configured with a Melsec Simple Motion module and Melsec-WS safety modules, and connects to a Mitsubishi GOT2000 operator terminal. There is also the option of incorporating a Melfa articulated robot arm for loading, making it possible to improve productivity while maintaining a controlled environment in the cleanroom. This, too, is supervised by the PLC. All components are connected via the CC-Link network. Riverside thinks its technology could have other applications.“We believe Shawpak could have a big impact on the food and beverage sector, electronic service components or anywhere else with stringent hygienic requirements,”says Rowe. n A Derby machine-builder has come up with a compact thermo-packaging machine that is one sixth the size of traditional machines, saving a lot of oorspace, especially in cleanroom applications, as well as boosting productivity and throughput. Riverside’s thermoforming sealing machine can perform the same operations as traditional packaging machines six times the size, saving a lot of space. The robot arm is optional.