Packaging industry speakers at BevOps included Krones Inc. director of systems engineering Heiko Feuring and ELAU global marketing manager John Kowal, along with operations, warehouse design and material handling experts. Strides in machinery were documented in a presentation compiled by ELAU.

Rotary cappers and labelers are using purpose-built servos to reduce slip ring connections, wiring and cabinet space in what ELAU terms its Virtually Zero Cabinet initiative™. Servo capper attributes include self-calibration, quality monitoring, malfunctioning spindle by-pass, and 15 minute tool-less changeovers.

Labelers from Finpac, Newtec, P.E., SACMI, and Sidel’s Alfa unit apply the same servos to orientate bottle plates, unwind and cut label stock, apply labels and synchronize turntables.

An inline auger filler from Pneumatic Scale’s Mateer Burt fits four of these compact servos onto 3-inch centers to de-nest, fill and seal single-serve coffee and tea filter pacs for Van Houtte Coffee, a Kuerig licensee.

The presentation also showed how cartoners and case packers are morphing into clusters of robot arms fed by servo collating belts. It’s the ultimate in flexibility. And proprietary ‘black box’ robot controllers are eliminated because all robotic functionality is contained in ELAU’s IEC-conforming software library.

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