Safe Residual Stack Monitoring on Packaging Machines

With increased automation in industrial plants, the requirements for machine safety are rising, which also affects the packaging industry. For example, due to a change in the standard (EN 1010-1:2004 changed to EN ISO 12643-4), operator intervention in potentially hazardous areas of packaging machines must be prevented in the future with PL d instead of PL b in order to ensure the greatest possible personnel protection.

The challenge lies in finding products and technologies that do not complicate the work on machines and therefore reduce productivity. In addition, conversion measures for proven machine concepts should be kept as low as possible. Sometimes, it is hard to find a suitable and cost-effective solution among the safety products available on the market. Here, individual safety concepts with non-safety products can serve as a solution for achieving the required safety level. For a safe packaging machine, interference with the machine via empty carton magazines (too low residual stacks) must be reliably prevented. A certain quantity of carton blanks in the cartoning machine magazine must always be available.

Pepperl+Fuchs offers an ideal solution that is not only cost-efficient, but also easy to integrate. The safety concept is based on two photoelectric sensors of the R100 series which guarantee the required safety level through their redundant design. Mounted on the side of the magazine, the IO-Link sensors detect the presence of a defined minimum quantity of carton blanks via a cross comparison. If the actual quantity of carton blanks falls below this minimum quantity—the previously defined limit value of the sensors—, the machine is switched off.

With the help of the safety experts from Pepperl+Fuchs, an individual safety concept is developed in order to find a cost-effective solution for achieving a higher performance level. Acquisition costs for additional components are kept as low as possible since existing sensors and the existing safety PLC can continue to be used.

The safety concept is created independently of the technology. For example, a solution based on ultrasonic instead of photoelectric sensors can easily be developed if the environmental conditions of the application require this.

In addition, depending on the application requirements, a wide variety of designs and mounting options from the entire portfolio of standard sensor technology from Pepperl+Fuchs can be accessed. This way, tailor-made safety concepts for individual applications can be developed.

• Changes in standards require higher safety measures for material feed in packaging machines
• Easily integrated and cost-efficient solution
• Individual safety concepts for achieving the required performance level even with non-secure products
• Technology-independent concepts depending on the requirements of the application environment
• Large portfolio of standard sensor technology for optimal adaptation to the application