Savoring Success: Efficient Motion for OEMs in Food and Beverage

Reliability in automation motion control is a critical factor for original equipment manufacturers. Directly impacting the machine’s overall equipment efficiency, the three key variables that contribute to reliability are servo position accuracy, trajectory repeatability, and overall system efficiency. Any failure in these variables can lead to negative consequences such as longer design times for new equipment, commissioning resource runover, and increased production costs for end users.

Original equipment manufacturers face the challenge of increasing the number of competitive features on their equipment while adhering to design constraints that aim to maintain profitability margins. In this context, having confidence in automation motion control becomes essential. By ensuring high levels of reliability in servo position accuracy, trajectory repeatability, and system efficiency, manufacturers can mitigate risks and enhance their competitive edge. This confidence in automation motion control enables them to deliver equipment that meets customer expectations, reduces downtime, and optimizes production processes.

In this article, the food and beverage original equipment manufacturer machine lifecycle will be followed from design, to commissioning, to production. Best practices will be introduced that enhance equipment confidence through motion control accuracy, repeatability, and efficiency. In each section, the focus will be on maximizing system performance through simplicity of design, while ensuring that future deployment of data aggregation is non-intrusive.

Design

When designing automation control systems, it is important to consider accuracy, repeatability, and efficiency from the beginning. The choice of network protocol plays a significant role in determining the complexity and performance of the machine downstream. The complexity of device communication can be measured by measuring the timeline for design revisions and the scale of the bill of materials. In food and beverage facilities, where product life cycles can last many years, selecting the appropriate network protocol can greatly impact the long-term ownership costs of operating the machine by minimizing any re-certification costs for original equipment.

The Design of Position Accuracy - EtherCAT® for time synchronization. The globally open industrial protocol, EtherCAT®, is designed for communication efficiency. As the EtherCAT® master communicates through a single packet of data that travels to each of the field devices, dropping off and receiving data for each device as the packet passes through each node and back. Whereas Ethernet traffic is an individual conversation between a PLC and each field device, regardless of the protocol. EtherCAT® achieves real-time deterministic communication, with cycle rates down to 125 μs. This high-speed communication removes jitter from the servos that can hinder accurate motion control. In sealing applications, being able to seal accurately is critical. This not only helps minimize material waste for downstream users, but also strengthens brand reputation and customer satisfaction.

The Design of Trajectory Repeatability – EtherCAT® for guaranteed command delivery. EtherCAT® is designed to ensure real-time motion control. Eliminating packet collisions that could occur when a PLC is having an individual conversation with each device and ensuring that the right packet is delivered to the right location, at the right time. In applications where precision is required over numerous cycles, like filling and sealing machines, bottling lines, and sterilization systems, EtherCAT® offers repeatable motion accuracy. The central processing unit synchronizes all EtherCAT® operations based on the primary motion task. Depending on the desired level of repeatability, three main EtherCAT® modes can be selected.

Free Run Mode, where the EtherCAT® cycle is asynchronous to the controller bus cycle. Where multiple refreshes are removed during an EtherCAT® cycle, although inputs and outputs are not refreshed at the same time across the network.

Synchronous Mode, where the EtherCAT® cycle is synchronized with the controller bus cycle. Synchronous reading of inputs and synchronous refresh of the outputs are performed at fixed intervals on multiple EtherCAT® devices simultaneously.

Time Stamp Mode, where the EtherCAT® cycle is synchronized with the controller bus cycle. Synchronous reading of the entries is based on the EtherCAT® distributed clock. This allows for precise timings down to micro-seconds.

The Design of System Efficiency – EtherCAT® for quick design and future scalability. EtherCAT® is an industrial protocol that is open globally, enabling different manufacturers to communicate on a shared network. This has led to a consistent adoption rate of 12% compound annual growth over the past fourteen years in the industry. This growth is not only a testament to the accuracy and precision of EtherCAT®, but also the sustained competitive advantage it provides to those who adopted this inclusive network protocol. Processors and packagers who implemented EtherCAT® in 2010 not only positioned themselves for future growth but also avoided significant redesign costs in the process.

Commission

With a robust architecture designed, validating performance before a first-pass, not only greatly diminishes the risk of performance failing to meet customer expectations but also allows the team to remove inefficiencies from a system before deployment. The commissioning process maximizes machine performance while also minimizing any risks associated with deployment in the downstream user’s facility. While commissioning is usually completed during the runoff stage, where equipment is fully assembled, commissioning can be completed in parallel to machine builds without any hardware. Reducing total production time without eroding the robust quality standards that have established strong original equipment manufacturers.

The Commissioning of Position Accuracy – Servo selection without hardware. The proper sizing of a servo is crucial for achieving both cost-effectiveness and accuracy in machine performance. Oversizing a servo increases the machine’s overall cost, while under-sizing it hampers the overall performance of the machine. By utilizing an integrated development environment on an all-in-one automation platform, original equipment manufacturers can streamline the process.

With this approach, a single program can be used to verify the performance of the machine, incorporating motor sizing add-ins to ensure the correct selection. By completing the verification of motor size and the machine program within the same software package, the complexity of using additional software is eliminated, reducing the risk of errors during the selection process. This integrated approach simplifies the process and enhances the accuracy of servo sizing, leading to improved machine performance.

The Commissioning of Trajectory Repeatability – Motion simulation without hardware. Motion trajectories have a symmetrical effect on overall equipment efficiency. Where the acceleration, deceleration, and motion paths affect throughput times, probabilities of crashes, and quality of the final product at a disproportional rate compared to other aspects of the machine design. Simulating trajectories in the same software environment as the program is created not only removes the risks of creating an unstable process on the factory floor but gives end users confidence that the product will perform in production the same as it performs during the runoff.

The Commissioning of System Efficiency – 3D simulation without hardware. 3D simulation can be used instead of physical hardware to simulate the entire assembly, which can greatly improve the commissioning process. It is important to consider that motion is not the only factor on the factory floor. It is also necessary to verify motion alongside safety processes and data collection. This is common when traceability and vision are intricate to production processes. By utilizing 3D models provided by manufacturers and simulating them in the same software environment as the program, teams can ensure safety without introducing risks during commissioning. Additionally, this allows teams to create an optimal operating procedure and enables runoff teams to validate performance against a known standard before approving the construction of the equipment. This significantly increases the likelihood of the machine exceeding the expectations of downstream users before investing in physical construction.

Production

Designing and commissioning original equipment can be a significant investment for manufacturers. However, the key to securing repeat customers resides in the performance stage of the equipment’s lifecycle. Factors such as future scalability, process uptime, and the ability to gather process data can greatly impact the overall customer satisfaction with the automation system and their potential for future business.

The Production of Position Accuracy – Automation modularity flexible to future demand. The highest performance all-in-one automation platforms not only have hundreds of off-the-shelf modular IO part numbers for plug and play installation but also a single software with drag and drop programming. These platforms connect using globally open industrial protocols beyond EtherCAT®. Extending a modular PLC’s connectivity beyond a motion by leveraging the network effects of these open networks. By using Fail Safe Over EtherCAT®, EtherNET/IP™, CIP Safety ™, IO Link, MQTT, OPC UA®, and SQL all as each was intended to be used. The most OEM conducive automation platforms have been designed to adopt new technologies quickly from the very beginning and without introducing undue complexity to the factory floor. For example, hand held traceability that communicates over Ethernet is becoming more common in motion applications. Original equipment manufacturers can use pre-published third-party connectivity guides and function blocks to help bridge the gap between manufacturers while preserving the modularity required for food and commodity manufacturers to remain flexible to evolving industry standards, new packaging materials, and shifting consumer trends.

The Production of repeatability - Automation playback capturing production events autonomously. When faults in automation result in events that cause downtime, finding the root cause of the fault quickly and verifying the finding is critical to restoring confidence in process stability.  The convergence of data, video, program structure, and ladder logic in playback is increasingly becoming the norm. Where all playback is time synced and event triggered to allow local and remote team members to diagnose issues quickly and accurately without interrupting production nor requiring operator presence during faults. When paired with simulated performance in the commissioning state, data playback over open protocols such as EtherCAT® gives downstream users the ability to realize continuous improvement without compromising machine performance metrics.

The Production of System Efficiency – OPC UA®™ built in servers feeding holistic process data to central locations. OPC UA®™ server functionality, which is now a standard feature on many controllers, enables open communication with field devices. This ensures that the SCADA software can meet its communication requirements, as the embedded OPC UA®™ server allows for simultaneous connections from multiple clients. By opting for OPC UA™, users of downstream machines can promptly utilize the security benefits offered by OPC UA®™ to prevent unauthorized client access. As OPC UA®™ server functionality becomes increasingly prevalent, original equipment manufacturers can establish stronger connections with users. This enables them to offer more comprehensive support for existing equipment and gain valuable insights into potential future equipment opportunities within their install base.

Downstream user satisfaction with original equipment manufacturers’ motion control is rooted in the ability of the motion to meet key production metrics today without hindering the operational success of tomorrow. To enhance the competitiveness of their equipment, original equipment manufacturers must prioritize robust designs, instill confidence during commissioning, and enable efficient troubleshooting. This is particularly important as industry standards demand higher levels of compliance. By focusing on these aspects, manufacturers can expand the range of competitive features offered by their equipment, ultimately increasing their market share. All-in-one automation platforms use globally open industrial protocols, such as EtherCAT®, to create simple architectures through the design phase, create multiple simulations in a single design environment during the commissioning phase, and create flexible data aggregation for future scaling during production.

As we anticipate future challenges in the food and beverage industry, certain standards will emerge. These include the need for efficient and inclusive networks, rapid development of new equipment with robustness, and non-intrusive yet holistic data aggregation. The encouraging news is that the technology required to address these challenges is already available. Original equipment manufacturers can leverage this technology today to fortify their sustainable competitive advantage for the future.