Italian packaging machine manufacturer TME has been hard at work during the pandemic. Together with Festo, the company has improved the energy efficiency of its latest generation of machines for single-serve packaging. It is worth taking a look at the so-called Packaging Valley in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, where TME is based.
"The application areas for single-serve packaging are multiplying every year and are not just restricted to the food sector," explains Carlo Lamantea, Purchasing Manager at TME. "They also extend to the assembly of plastics, the pharmaceutical sector, the medical industry, the cosmetics industry and many others." The capsule packaging system HTS from TME is designed to provide large production capacities and meet the highest efficiency standards.
Easy integration of the servo drives
In addition to the production of 280 to 1200 capsules per minute, "this system allows all capsule models and different materials such as plastic, compostable material and aluminium to be processed," Lamantea adds. "This means that coffee as well as powdered drinks, teas and medicinal teas can be packaged." Festo was chosen as a partner because it offered a new range of brushless servo systems type CMMT and EMMT that integrated seamlessly with TME's control platform, which is based on EtherCAT technology.
The coffee is dispensed and sealed by a screw conveyor system driven by brushless motors from Festo. "The aim was to increase the production capacity of the (high-end) capsule packaging machines HTS with the best technological solutions available on the market," explains Gabriele Barbarini, Application Sales Engineer at Festo.
TME and Festo worked together much more closely, especially during the pandemic. "We introduced the most innovative motion control family, the combination of servo drives CMMT and single-cable motors EMMT, in our main plant. This has helped us to re-establish ourselves in the market and take advantage of the recovery after the worst period in our recent history," says Purchasing Manager Lamantea. "It was a year and a half marked by upheavals." But something also changed in the interaction with customers. The company resorted to using systems that enabled remote FATs (Factory Acceptance Test). This gave customers the feeling that they could be as close as possible to their products. "And we were able to respond to their requests in real time," says Lamantea.
Energy saving webinars
"The support from Festo support has also extended to the development of electric automation components. This has enabled us to produce high-performance machines that are also characterised by saving energy consumption. The machines from TME stand for durability and sustainability and take individual customer requirements into account," emphasises Purchasing Manager Lamantea. "Festo started by advising us on pneumatic solutions, and then also supported us over time with the development of the best mechatronic solutions for our HTS production lines. They have provided us with support during face-to-face meetings, but also in the form of many webinars on topics such as energy saving and machine safety, which the experts from Festo have organised over the last two years."
It is worth noting that TME has had an automatic shutdown system for production breaks in place in its plants for more than twenty years. "This allows us to recover the energy that is generated by the brushless motors during braking and feed it into the common energy bus and, thanks to Festo, optimise compressed air management," explains sales expert Alice Magnani.
Energy efficiency module MSE6
"TME has integrated the new modules of MSE6 series into some of its projects specifically for compressed air optimisation," confirms Festo Project Engineer Gabriele Barbarini. That is how solutions have been found that can be seamlessly integrated into the compressed air preparation units, allowing consumption to be monitored and energy wastage to be reduced.