Greener machines

There may be several ways of identifying green packaging machinery. Packaging machines that utilize eco friendly components, raw materials and/or technologies may be called “green” or greener . Manufactures and end-users are starting to pay attention to energy consumption when shopping for new equipment. Often the goal is carbon footprint reduction, as well as, overall reduction of energy costs. Our company employs several servo technologies in the machines we build, therefore I would like to bring up one important development in “greener servos”. There has been big leap in industrial automation when it comes advancement of “regenerative power supplies”. Modern “regenerative power bus systems” are capable of storing unused energy produced by motors during deceleration and utilizing it only when required . This new technique may be extremely useful especially in high speed indexing applications, where up to 40 % of energy can be recovered and reused . Conventional servo motors and braking systems typically turn unused energy into heat, purely by sending unused current to devices called “heat sinks”, commonly installed in variable speed drives and servo drives. Modern systems take advantage of kinetic energy generated during braking routines and convert that same energy to electricity by sending it to” regenerative power bus systems”. These contemporary power regeneration solutions provide more efficient energy management, reduce amount of heat in electrical cabinets and most more importantly consume less electricity. At Pack-Smart we also utilize low weight alloys in order to reduce inertia in the machines we build, this approach often leads to increased longevity of equipment, reduced energy consumption more notably increased performance. We also encourage our customers to look at using solvent free adhesives and more eco-friendly plastics such us PETs instead of PVCs. Replacing thermo coupled controls and utilization of analog control methods , in cases where temperature is a factor can provide more harmonized power management, improved performance and some incremental improvement in carbon footprint reduction. Another critical element of packaging equipment and packaging plants is a good design practice, management and maintenance of pneumatic circuits and components. Paying attention to air management at both plant and machine levels always leads to incremental savings in energy costs and reduced downtime. In today’s fast pace manufacturing world leaky air systems contribute to significant amounts of energy wasted, often significant improvements can be archived with relatively small investments. Derek Dlugosh-Ostap Pack-Smart Inc. derekd@packsmaritnc.com

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