Food packaging plays an essential role in preserving product quality, enhancing convenience and promoting brand identification.

The rapid emergence of COVID dramatically altered the food-packaging landscape, bringing new demands for single-serve packaging, aseptic materials, ecommerce-friendly packaging and more. As packaging has become significantly more complex and consumers more demanding, the need has only grown for strict hygienic procedures to ensure food safety, from the factory to the retail shelf to the table.

Stricter regulations and more rigorous cleaning threaten productivity

Food safety is regulated by the FDA in the United States and the EFSA in the European Union. Other regions and countries have similar regulatory regimes. Over time, these regulations have become increasingly strict as governments respond to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses. For example, in the US, the Food Safety Modernization Act mandates a comprehensive range of preventive measures, inspections, tests and responses to violations and outbreaks of disease.

The threat of mandatory recalls, detention of products and suspension of facility registration pose a considerable risk to the profitability of food packaging operations. Manufacturers need to respond by enhancing the procedures for cleaning their food processing and packaging machines. Yet more rigorous cleaning can also threaten profitability, as frequent, high-pressure and high-temperature washdowns can mean substantial downtime and an unacceptable risk of costly equipment damage.

Meeting food safety requirements while maximizing OEE

To help food processors and packagers compete effectively while ensuring a safe food supply, machine OEMs need to rethink their designs at both the architectural and component level to simplify cleaning while maximizing overall equipment effectiveness.

For example, because motors are susceptible to damage due to water ingress, older machine designs often require shields or bags to protect motors during washdown, with the motors cleaned by hand in a separate operation. This increases the risk of inadequate cleaning, and the time-consuming bother of installing shields or bags can tempt cleaning crews to take shortcuts that compromise product safety and equipment reliability.

Clean-in-place designs feature fixed or dynamic spray devices that pump cleaning solutions throughout the machine and then rinse with minimal need for equipment disassembly and reassembly. Modular systems allow a production line to split into easily cleanable modules without the need to reconfigure equipment or to disconnect and reconnect cables.

Both of these architectures accelerate the cleaning process to minimize downtime and maximize productivity. But neither, in itself, solves the problem of protecting motors from washdown damage.

Either shields or bags must be installed and removed in order to hand-clean motors separately, or else there needs to be a way to wash motors down directly without damaging them. In all cases, it’s essential to use motors that won’t corrode or shed paint chips, as these issues can contaminate food directly or create an environment that harbors pathogens.

It’s also important to select motors that work with the control systems commonly used in the food processing and packaging industry to simplify machine design and avoid supplier lock-in.

Kollmorgen offers hygienic and washdown-ready motors that meet all of these criteria. Some common application examples include:

Auger fillers

Auger filling machines are typically used for packaging flour, sugar, coffee, drink mixes and other dry powders, granules and particulates. The ability to purge lines and clean these machines in place is a significant advantage, especially for food packagers that handle several different products and wish to maximize productivity through rapid changeover.

These machines vary greatly in size and benefit from the simplicity, light weight and space savings of direct drive motion, eliminating the need for a gearbox. Kollmorgen offers several motor solutions that meet these needs. For example, stainless steel AKMH hygienic servo motors are available in 19 standard sizes with multiple winding options. These torque-dense motors enable significant space savings and weigh 15–17% less than competing motors in their class, simplifying assembly and positioning of equipment.

With AKMH motors, machine builders can meet the requirements of any size auger filler — specifying one proven-dependable motor family that incorporates food-grade materials and features a smooth, round design with no nooks or crannies to harbor pathogens. The IP69K housing is designed to endure daily high-pressure, high-temperature washdowns without the need for shields or bags.

Bottle filling machines

The machines that fill, cap and label beverage bottles are typically very large. The filling speed of each individual bottle is limited by the quantity and properties of the fluid — bottles must not be filled too fast. At the same time, production targets for beverage manufacturing are often very high, so these machines need the ability to handle and fill many bottles simultaneously.

In these large, multi-axis machines, positioning errors pose a significant risk of costly downtime and scrap. Transmission components such as gearboxes must be extremely precise, with minimal backlash, and they require replacement as they wear and lose accuracy. The need to clean transmission components only adds to the risk of wear due to ingress of water and cleaning fluids.

A better solution in many cases is to eliminate transmission components in favor of direct drive. Stainless steel AKMH servo motors are an ideal choice, offering extreme precision in a wide range of options to suit the exacting size, torque and speed requirements of each axis. These motors incorporate food-grade materials and a hygienic design with IP69K ingress protection that endures direct, daily washdowns.

An additional option for creating a simpler, easier-to-clean machine is to use AKD-N decentralized servo drives. These compact, IP67 drives can be mounted directly to the machine, near each axis, minimizing cabinet space and reducing cabling requirements by up to 80%. In addition to eliminating the need to run cables from each motor to the control cabinet, AKD-N drives allow for DC, network, power supply, I/O level and safety (STO) signals to run in one easily cleaned hybrid cable.

Automatic scales

Slices of cheese, meat and other products that are packaged on a plastic tray or container must be accurately weighed. The goal is to achieve a specified net weight with minimal product giveaway — or, in the case of variable-weight packaging, to ensure accurate weight and pricing on each package.

If the motor is part of the scale system, minimal motor weight can minimize the risk that weight accuracy will be compromised. This is also the place to use relatively flexible cables, as a stiffer cable in motion can cause unnecessary drag that affects scale precision.

Another consideration is the motor’s thermal rise, as a hot motor in close proximity to a perishable product can affect food safety and quality. A motor that is cooler in operation also allows for faster cleaning, with less time spent waiting for the machine to cool down.

This is an ideal application for lightweight AKMA servo motors. They deliver high torque density in a light, compact form factor. The smooth, hardened anodized aluminum coating ensures simple cleanability, while IP69K ingress protection, one-piece housing and vented design ensure reliable performance in medium and heavy washdown environments.

Let’s solve your unique application challenges

Those are just a few food processing and packaging applications where Kollmorgen motion solutions have made a measurable difference for machine cleanliness, reliability and performance.

As a Gold Partner, Micromech are able to supply and provide expertise on Kollmorgen products. Need assistance with a new project? Contact our engineers.

Kollmorgen Automation Suite is a machine automation solution that brings together hardware, a highly integrated and intuitive software programming environment, and advanced safety features to create a highly differentiated machine. This integration has helped to accelerate development time, increase machine throughput, reduce scrap and increase overall equipment effectiveness.

Eliminating the need to integrate the control system at the machine level saves the OEM engineering team time when creating the machine. A smaller panel is less expensive and helps the OEM to make a smaller machine overall, which takes up less floor space for the eventual end user. It’s possible to embed machine and motion controls in a machine controller that includes integrated control for multiple servo and stepper axes, complete I/O, HMI interface and Fieldbus connectivity. This type of integration is particularly useful when paired with open-architecture systems.

Smart technologies use automatic recognition and web-based operations to communicate and connect multiple devices within the same machine. For example, when an integrated servo drive with a motion controller is connected to several other servo drives or I/O modules, it should automatically recognize itself and the other servo drives on the network. The machine builder then just maps them to the physical axis names.

A packaging machine that uses web-based operations allows users to check the status of each axis, start or stop the machine, and command backup and restore functions. Through a dedicated IP address or connection to a server, operations or engineering personnel can check the status of a machine or even a controller through any web browser.

Using a recognized standard for PLC programming or motion controllers, such as IEC-61131-3 or PLCopen for Motion, allows machine builders that are more comfortable with ladder programming, structured text or any other IEC-61131-3 language to build machines that can easily integrate with other components that use the same standards.

Integrated Technologies for More Responsive Safety

The primary concern for any type of machinery is safety. For packaging machines, the traditional approach is to add separate safety modules and then integrate it with the machine. New technologies allow for safety functions to be 100% drive resident, eliminating the need for external solutions that depend on complex integration between the controller, safe PLC and drive. Having safety functions reside solely on the drive allow it to react more responsively than separate components.

Safety functions that are drive resident can be programmed to operate automatically without explicit commands from an operator. For example, an axis could be programmed to apply the brakes automatically in the event of a power failure, so it doesn’t fail and drop a load.

Advanced drive-resident safety features can not only protect an operator but also maintain machine productivity even during times when a machine would normally be taken offline. For example, cleaning a packaging machine would traditionally require powering down the machine, cleaning it and powering it back up, taking the machine out of product for the entire cleaning process. Using drive-resident safety features such as safe limited speed function allows the machine to be cleaned while still in operation, eliminating downtime while still maintaining operator safety.

Kollmorgen’s SafeMotion Monitor includes a full range of ISO Certified options to suit virtually any functional safety requirement. These safety functions are 100% drive-resident, eliminating the need for external solutions that depend on complex integration between the controller, safe PLC and drive.

Advanced Maintenance and Performance Metrics

Web-based operations allow users to check the status of each axis and start or stop the machine remotely. This ability to monitor the machine in real time presents the opportunity to conduct preventative maintenance work, which improves overall safety of the machine. Additionally, no PC software or keypad programming is needed to configure the machine in a replacement or preventive maintenance situation, which can significantly increase the uptime of a packaging line. This is commonly referred to as “the third-shift paradox,” where the unexpected happens on the third shift when most companies are running the machine with limited support. These tools help to mitigate some of this risk.

Beyond preventive maintenance, an upside to an integrated machine with internet connectivity is that it provides more data to the end-user for performance trending to improve operational efficiency. Automatic backup and restore functions enable a change out of the servo drive with no configuration needed. Information is centrally stored and downloaded, and an integrated help support system is often built directly into the development software with an integrated help function.

Creating Machines that Adapt to Evolving Needs

Smart, integrated technologies create value for packaging machine operations beyond a smaller footprint: predictive maintenance and performance modeling, advanced safety features, easier integration of various components, and ease of use and configuration for the end-user.

When upgrading or building a new packaging system, consider that most equipment manufacturers are using pre-engineered products that lock the user into a system for 10 or more years. This can be especially painful when a packaging manufacturer or end user is trying to continuously improve operations and adapt the machine to evolving needs. The equipment manufacturer should listen to input from its users and help them achieve their long-term goals.

For Every Motion: Kollmorgen

For more than 70 years, Kollmorgen has designed and created motion systems that meet the needs of modern packaging and manufacturing. From our motion and machine controller to the AKD2G servo drive and AKM2G servo motor to the Kollmorgen Automation Suite, a machine automation solution that brings together highly integrated software, best-in-class motion control, SafeMotion™ capabilities, Kollmorgen’s motion systems have the type of integration, intelligence and automation helps OEMs create machines that can be flexible and responsive to their customers’ needs.

We provide co-engineering and in-region support for fast production ramp-up and long-term sustainable supply chain, so you can depend on Kollmorgen for reliable deployment for the life of your machine packaging equipment. From concept to production, Kollmorgen is the one partner you need for the most ambitious design, the most capable engineering and the most confident delivery.

As a Gold Partner, Micromech are able to supply and provide expertise on Kollmorgen products contact our sales team.