Chain Track Moves Product Quietly and Cleanly

Cleanliness and noise reduction are constant needs in food/beverage and packaging applications. A new flat top chain not only meets such needs, it also provides a flat transportation surface. Flexon flat top chains are available in various plastic and stainless steel versions as both linear and curved tracks. The low-contamination materials fulfill hygiene requirements. The chains have a high quality finish and flatness. Their low friction coefficients aid energy efficiency.

Depending on their application, plastic flat top chains can have certain advantages over stainless steel types. In conveying systems, for example, they generate up to 80% less noise. And the plastic elements are up to 40% lighter in weight, which boosts conveying capacity or reduces the required drive power. Because of their resistance to chemicals, they can be cleaned with agents that are either unsuitable for metal chains or would require intensive maintenance.

iwis drive systems, LLC
www.iwisusa.com

Guide to Motion Solutions for Packaging Applications

WOOD DALE, IL –Thomson has available a new Guide to Motion Solutions for Packaging Applications that offers information on how to leverage motion technology to design and build optimized packaging and related material handling machines.

Specific examples with detailed 3D application renderings include pick-and-place/palletizing, label printing/scanning, stretch wrapping, carton packing, PET bottle manufacturing and filling machines. The guide also provides an overview of the company’s linear motion and related components for packaging machinery including profile rails, RoundRail linear guides and components, lead and ball screws, linear actuators, precision linear actuators, linear motion systems, clutches and brakes, and gearheads.

Thomson
www.thomsonlinear.com

Linear position sensors to improve filling process

Temposonics R Series linear position sensors are designed to improve the filling process for facilities that package a wide variety of products. Where a packaging facility once required a complicated, bulky and costly combination scale to switch back and forth between various products during packaging cycles, these sensors are being used in equipment that is more compact and less expensive due to fewer moving parts, as the sensors have replaced a number of other components in the machine. 

R Series sensors also increase the accuracy of fillers to improve consistency and reduce waste. R Series sensors provide linear, absolute measurement and non-contact sensing in a variety of outputs such as SSI, DeviceNet, Profibus, and EtherCAT. With non-linearity less than 0.01% and repeatability within 0.001%, these sensors suit packaging applications that require accuracy, reliability and consistency.

MTS Systems Corp, Sensors Division 
www.mtssensors.com

More Accurate Electric Screw Actuators

When customers choose different packaging bags to keep their costs down, it can affect how packaging machines operate. Such was the case faced by Thiele Technologies, a leader in packaging technology and equipment. Its bagging systems measure, fill and seal bags containing anything from pet food to salt, sugar, dirt, seed, fertilizer or animal feed.

One of its customers recently switched to bags with irregular dimensions. But the bags slowed the production process, which requires high-speed accuracy to meet manufacturing goals. Thiele engineers needed to alter a popular modular bag filling and sealing system to compensate for the dimensional inconsistencies.  Read more