emkon. packaging machinery: robot solutions

The construction of test rigs saves time, money and energy
Even before a single machine or an entire production line is built, many design concepts are developed, and theoretical solutions approaches are presented. Drawings and plans are created and three-dimensionally mapped in the software. Everything, so that no unexpected surprises arise in the later course of your project. Test rigs contribute at least as much to the success of a project – because some challenges are faced only in practice.

At emkon., we regularly count on the construction of test rigs – at the beginning of a commissioned project or in advance of design and engineering contracts. This enables us to indicate our customers on imminent troubles and weak points in design concepts. Do the products really act like shown in previous calculations of the software? Are there any physical limits that were not considered? Does the theoretical consideration correspond to the factual circumstances? Particularly with less formstable products or packagings we often have to deal with deviations that cannot be considered theoretically in their entire extent. For our engineers and designers these tests provide valuable informations for setting up the production lines.

Test rigs to safeguard design concepts
For our customer Niederegger, we have built a test rig that showed the repeated precisely picking and placing of mini Marzipan pralines with an individual weight of 12,5 gram. The Marzipan pralines were slid trough a curtain to generate a random arrangement in the infeed. The product was precisely located on the running belt. The used Delta-robot reliably picks up the product and places it in formation on another belt. Consistently, we were able to convince us of the reliability of the system and the good work of the Delta-robot. Thus, we used the test rig also for further variations of picking and placing of Marzipan pralines.

Test rig as a precursor for innovative production technology
Behind every new technology, there is an initial idea. Alongside financial and temporal barriers, there are often sceptics who represents a challenge. With a test rig many doubts can be rebutted. This was also the case with our success model emkon. VINCO. In the course of our in-house exhibition PURE INNOVATION, we showed the filling of stand-up bags by using vacuum technology for the first time. A true innovation in the sector.

“We had it easy to convince our customers of the potential of this technology due to the test rig. The subsequently achieved market leadership of our customer JTI is based on the successful demonstration of this test rig. From an idea, a technology was created that the filling of stand-up bags in the tobacco sector has revolutionized and is already successfully applied in practice”, says Björn Fichtler, emkon. Sales manager, division tobacco.

The usage of test rigs is successful even then tested technologies are not suitable for the respective application. The pacifier has not been positioned by Delta-robots in the implemented project but by linear kinematics. Also a finding from our tests.