Packaging Line Research Articles

Dynamics of transition processes in food packaging lines

Dynamics of transition processes in food packaging lines

Pharmaceutical industrial equipment qualification in Brazil: a strategic test proposal for vaccine secondary material packaging lines

This research has as main objective prepare a qualification plan for vaccines secondary material packaging lines, in order to guide its practice and to define the tests required for the pharmaceutical industry in Brazil. This study sought to ensure product quality and health through better testing planning needed for proper installation, operation and performance of the equipment, as the few existing national regulations are generic regarding this type of approach. For this, a literature review was conducted using the most comprehensive research bases of scientific articles to describe the state of the art on the subject. The survey questionnaire was applied to the qualification and validation specialists. The use of a statistical tooling helped in the process of identification of the tests which cannot be missed within a quality planning. It is expected that the result of this study, through the development of a qualification plan, will add safety, reproducibility and effectiveness to the quality of the product and facilitate regulatory compliance with regulatory agencies. In addition, this plan will aim to contribute to other equipment and systems aimed at guiding specialists in qualification activities and the advancement of literature research.

Effect of Sporulation Conditions Following Submerged Cultivation on the Resistance of Bacillus atrophaeus Spores against Inactivation by H2O2.

The resistance formation of spores in general and of Bacillus atrophaeus in particular has long been the focus of science in the bio-defense, pharmaceutical and food industries. In the food industry, it is used as a biological indicator (BI) for the evaluation of the inactivation effects of hydrogen peroxide in processing and end packaging lines’ sterilization. Defined BI resistances are critical to avoid false positive and negative tests, which are salient problems due to the variable resistance of currently available commercial BIs. Although spores for use as BIs have been produced for years, little is known about the influence of sporulation conditions on the resistance as a potential source of random variability. This study therefore examines the dependence of spore resistance on the temperature, pH and partial oxygen saturation during submerged production in a bioreactor. For this purpose, spores were produced under different sporulation conditions and their resistance, defined by the D-value, was determined using a count reduction test in tempered 35% liquid hydrogen peroxide. The statistical analysis of the test results shows a quadratic dependence of the resistance on the pH, with the highest D-values at neutral pH. The sporulation temperature has a linear influence on the resistance. The higher the temperature, the higher the D-value. However, these factors interact with each other, which means that the temperature only influences the resistance when the pH is within a certain range. The oxygen partial pressure during sporulation has no significant influence. Based on the data obtained, a model could be developed enabling the resistance of BIs to be calculated, predicted and standardized depending on the sporulation conditions. BI manufacturers could thus produce BIs with defined resistances for the validation of sterilization effects in aseptic packaging/filling lines for the reliable manufacture of shelf-stable and safe food products.

THE EFFECT OF EXCESSIVE SETTING TIME, LONG DAMAGE OF THE MACHINE, TIME OF PACKAGING PACKAGES STOPPED TO PRODUCTION OPERATIONAL COSTS: STUDY IN LINE 8A PT XYZ FARMA Tbk

This study aims to determine the effect of excess machine setting time, machine breakdown time, time for packaging lines to stop, on production operating costs and which factors are most dominant in influencing production operating costs. This research uses a quantitative descriptive method approach. The place of research is at PT. XYZ Farma on line 8A. The research sample consisted of 22 data records from a population of 450 data records. Data collection techniques are observation techniques, event recording and documentation. The results showed the influence of excessive setting time, machine damage time, packaging line time stalled against operational costs of production. This is demonstrated by using AMOS, the value of C.R (Critical Ratio) exceeds the critical value ± 1,717. The value of C.R for each variable is the excessive machine setting time, the length of time the machine is damaged, and the time of the packaging line has stalled towards the operational cost of production is 2,850; 10, 913; 5,330.
 Based on AMOS Standardized Regression Weight Output statistical calculations show that the duration of damage to the machine provides the greatest contribution in increasing the operational costs of production. This is indicated by the estimated coefficient value of the largest engine damage time which is 82.1%. So it can be concluded that the influence of excess engine setting time, machine breakdown time and time of the packaging line has stalled to the operational costs of production with the variable length of engine damage giving the greatest contribution.

Using Electroencephalography (EEG) Power Responses to Investigate the Effects of Ambient Oxygen Content, Safety Shoe Type, and Lifting Frequency on the Worker's Activities.

Objective The study assesses the changes in electroencephalography (EEG) power spectral density of individuals in hypoxia when wearing a different type of safety shoes under different lifting frequencies. It also assesses the EEG response behavior induced via the process of lifting loads related to these variables. Methods The study was conducted in two consecutive phases: training and acclimatization phase and experimental lifting phase. Ten male college students participated in this study. A four-way repeated measures design was used in this research with independent variables: ambient oxygen content (“15%, 18%, and 20%”), safety shoes type (“light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty”), lifting frequency (“1 and 4 lifts/min”), and replication (“first and second”). And the dependent variables were alpha, theta, beta, gamma, θ/α, θ/β, α/β, β/α, (θ + α)/β, and (θ + α)/(α + β). The participant was allowed to determine his maximum acceptable weight of lift (MAWL) in fifteen minutes of lifting using psychophysically technique. Then, he continued lifting the MAWL for another five minutes, where all the data were collected. Results Results showed that the EEG responses at lower levels of the independent variables were significantly high than at higher levels; except for oxygen content, the EEG responses at lower levels were considerably lower than at a higher level. It also showed that an upsurge in the physical demand increased lifting frequency and replication and caused decreasing in alpha power, theta/beta, alpha/beta, (theta + alpha)/beta, (theta + alpha)/(alpha + beta) and increasing in the theta power and the gamma power. Furthermore, several interactions among independent variables had significant effects on the EEG responses. Conclusion The EEG implementation for the investigation of neural responses to physical demands allows for the possibility of newer nontraditional and faster methods of human performance monitoring. These methods provide effective and reliable results as compared to other traditional methods. This study will safeguard the physical capabilities and possible health risks of industrial workers. And the applications of these tasks can occur in almost all working environments (factories, warehouses, airports, building sites, farms, hospitals, offices, etc.) that are at high altitudes. It can include lifting boxes at a packaging line, handling construction materials, handling patients in hospitals, and cleaning.

Group decision making in manufacturing systems: An approach using spatial preference information and indifference zone

Decision making is an essential activity in manufacturing systems when designing production lines, scheduling, etc. Many decision making problems are characterized by multiple conflicting criteria and a large number of alternatives. For these complex decision making problems, it is rational to involve a group of decision makers (DM) for considering different aspects of the problem. This paper proposes an approach for supporting the decision making group to reduce disagreement in the group and obtain a common solution. The proposed approach allows the DMs to specify a region of acceptance, known as indifference zone, in the objective space as preference inputs. This makes the proposed approach applicable to problems with a large number of alternatives. The use of indifference zone concept captures the uncertain nature of preference articulation. Moreover, the indifference zone is shown beneficial in reducing the difficulty of reaching a group common solution. The properties of the proposed method are investigated analytically and with numerical experiments. Finally, the usefulness of the proposed method is shown by tackling a real-world packaging line configuration problem with a large alternative set.

A Reinforcement Learning Approach to Robust Scheduling of Semiconductor Manufacturing Facilities

As semiconductor manufacturers, recently, have focused on producing multichip products (MCPs), scheduling semiconductor manufacturing operations become complicated due to the constraints related to reentrant production flows, sequence-dependent setups, and alternative machines. At the same time, the scheduling problems need to be solved frequently to effectively manage the variabilities in production requirements, available machines, and initial setup status. To minimize the makespan for an MCP scheduling problem, we propose a setup change scheduling method using reinforcement learning (RL) in which each agent determines setup decisions in a decentralized manner and learns a centralized policy by sharing a neural network among the agents to deal with the changes in the number of machines. Furthermore, novel definitions of state, action, and reward are proposed to address the variabilities in production requirements and initial setup status. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms the rule-based, metaheuristic, and other RL methods in terms of the makespan while incurring shorter computation time than the metaheuristics considered. Note to Practitioners —This article studies a scheduling problem for die attach and wire bonding stages of a semiconductor packaging line. Due to the variabilities in production requirements, the number of available machines, and initial setup status, it is challenging for a scheduler to produce high-quality schedules within a specific time limit using existing approaches. In this article, a new scheduling method using reinforcement learning is proposed to enhance the robustness against the variabilities while achieving performance improvements. To verify the robustness of the proposed method, neural networks (NNs) trained on small-scale scheduling problems are used to solve large-scale scheduling problems. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the existing approaches while requiring a short computation time. Furthermore, the trained NN performs well in solving unseen real-world scale problems even under stochastic processing time, suggesting the viability of the proposed method for real-world semiconductor packaging lines.

A Group Air Hydraulic Actuator of Power Stations for Form–Fill–Seal Automatic Packaging Lines

This article examines the aspects of power in-process operations along automatic lines for filling and packaging liquid and half-liquid products. It is shown that individual power station actuators can be replaced with one group air hydraulic actuator without any loss in productivity. Moreover, the dynamics of cutting out ready-made items can be significantly improved. The layout of an air hydraulic cylinder is presented in which an additional introduced high-pressure sealed zone connected to the hydraulic chamber by means of an adjustable choke and a reverse valve allows changing the tool power stroke speed right to creeping.

Dynamics and energy provision of cargo transportation systems in food packing lines

The work is related to the search for the possibilities of using internal energy resources in transport and technological systems by the example of food packaging lines packed in glass containers. Trends in switching to high-performance lines have led to the need for their equipment with dual-purpose transport systems. Obviously, the first task is to ensure the movement of artificial products in the respective sections between units of technological machines, and the second component of their task - to fulfill the role of storage devices in combination with the need for restructuring mass flows. This combination of tasks has led to the exclusive use of closed circuit circuits with two friction planes in transport systems. Meanwhile, it is known that energy costs in mechanical systems are associated with the need to achieve the specified levels of kinetic energy of the moving masses in order to overcome the forces of harmful and useful resistance. The peculiarity of such transport systems is the constant presence of transients and dynamic components of loads. The study complements the known dynamic manifestations with new ratios of indicators for the possibility of energy recovery. In the transportation systems for glass production of foodstuffs, the driving factors in most cases are represented by friction forces. Simultaneously, the closure of kinematic pairs between the products and the supporting moving planes is due to gravity forces, which, in cases where their velocities do not coincide, leads to the formation of an additional friction plane with a corresponding increase in energy costs and dynamic components of the loads. The uneven velocity of the closed circuit circuits is accompanied by additional relative displacements at certain ratios of kinematic and geometric parameters. An appropriate set of parameters is achievable by eliminating these additional displacements of the product arrays relative to the reference planes and limiting energy costs. The use of rigid kinematic bonds in parallel systems allows for changes in velocities in counter-phases and provides energy recovery. With stabilized kinematic parameters, compared to single-stream systems, higher loads of drive motors with improved performance are achieved.

The synergistic effect of enzymatic detergents on biofilm cleaning from different surfaces

Biofilm growth is a significant source of contamination in the food industry. Enzymes are considered green countermeasures against biofilm formation in the food industry owing to their biodegradability and low toxicity. In this study, the synergistic effect of enzymes was studied against biofilm cleaning from hard surfaces. A mixed-microbial sample was sourced from a meat packaging line and biofilms were grown under high shear conditions on stainless steel and polyethylene surfaces. A model cleaning-in-place (CIP) parallel-plate flow chamber was used for firstly, the enzymatic cleaning and secondly, a disinfection step. The cleaning effectiveness was evaluated in response to different formulations containing non-foaming commercial surfactants among with amylase, protease and lipase at neutral pH. The formulation combining all three enzymes was the most effective, showing a synergy essential for the deformation of biofilm structure and consequently better disinfection of both material surfaces.

A Simulation-Based Tool to Support Decision-Making in Logistics Design of a Can Packaging Line

Abstract This study proposes an advanced discrete-event simulation-based tool to support decision-making in the internal logistic design of a packaging line of a multinational brewery company. The selected software, Simio, allows emulating, advising and predicting the behavior of complex real-world systems. The simulation model provides a 3D interface that facilitates verification and validation. In this work, the designed model is used to understand the dynamic interactions between multiple factors and performance measures including both material-handling and inventory systems and to define necessary quantities and/or capacities of resources for a future can packaging line. Based on the proposed model, a what-if analysis is performed to determine inventory threshold values and other critical variables in order to optimize the configuration of internal logistics in potential scenarios.

Online Packaging Method of Filament Cathode for Intelligent Manufacturing

It is challenging to automatically package spiral shaped filament cathodes that are widely used in worldwide microwave ovens. The difficulties include a fast packaging speed of over one parts per second and the dexterity required to handle tangling and embedding between spiral filaments’ multiple circles. In order to convert conventional labor intensive packaging lines of filament cathodes into automatic ones, an online fast automatic packaging method is reported. The method converts the fast incoming sequential flow of filament spirals into a batch of twenty-parallel queues with two stopping levers. The proposed method using two levers to release only the front twenty filaments at a time, one from each queue to fill one complete row of the plastic packaging tray. In this way, it speeds up packaging speed twenty times over conventional sequential packaging method. The inner diameter of the queue tube matches the outer diameter of the filament. It is this dimeter matching to eliminate the embedding problem occurred between neighboring filaments. The proposed method uses vibrating brush to decouple tangled filaments. Large number of validating experiments indicate that the proposed method could automatically package 200 filaments spirals within 2 minutes, with positional accuracy of over 97%. Thus, the proposed packaging method could meet the manufacturing requirement of filament cathodes, releasing four labors out of every production line at every work-shift. Further, this method also simultaneously improves the surface quality of the filaments by eliminating scratch caused by their sharp fresh-cutting cross sections.

Development of Robotic Coordinated Control System for Bowl Food Packaging

The processing of the bowled food is relatively mechanical, repetitive and cumbersome, resulting in high work intensity, low efficiency, and high defect rate, and meets the working cycle:13.5s, positioning accuracy: 2mm.A PLC-based automatic feeding control system for food packaging line was designed. Including the conveyor line for bowl feeding, the numerical controlled manipulator and package process following control system for reclaiming and discharging functions, the system control scheme was proposed and 3D modeling construction was carried out. The design of hardware and software for feeding, reclaiming and discharging in the system is elaborated in detail. Finally, through the actual on-site commissioning and production operation, it is proved that the equipment has fully met the design requirements and greatly improved the production efficiency.

Grouping Method of Semiconductor Bonding Equipment Based on Clustering by Fast Search and Find of Density Peaks for Dynamic Matching According to Processing Tasks

Given that the equipment for the semiconductor packaging line adopts the fixed grouping production method, thus failing to dynamically match the processing task demand capacity, in the present study, we proposed a semiconductor bonding equipment-grouping method based on processing task matching. This method sets the device group closed position constraint and the matching constraint between the device type and the processing type and uses the graph theory method to establish the device grouping model. The dynamic grouping of equipment under the capacity demand of different processing tasks was achieved by changing the relationship matrix between devices. The drawback of this grouping method is rather large grouping deviation, which we tried to solve with the clustering by fast search and find of density peaks (CFSFDP) that was added to cluster the sets of attribute information of the devices so as to obtain the maximum number of grouping groups obtained to reduce the grouping deviation. Simulation comparison experiments were carried out under different circumstances considering the size of the formation, the distribution of demand capacity, and the coefficient of difference in demand capacity. Compared with the standard device grouping method, the grouping method based on semiconductor bonding equipment and CFSFDP algorithm for dynamic matching according to processing tasks had better performance in solving the dynamic grouping problem.

Evaluation of the Level of Work Safety, Advancement and Efficiency of the Use of Machines and Devices on Labelling and Packaging Line and an Attempt to Compare the Results Using the Modified Mckinsey Matrix

Abstract The article presents the results of the assessment of the level of work safety, the level of modernity and the efficiency of the use of machines on the labelling and packaging line. The assessment of the level of occupational safety was made on the basis of an interview conducted with machine operators, by direct observation and analysis of historical data. The basis for assessing the level of modernity was the ABC technology method and the 5-stage Parker scale, while the OEE indicator was used to assess the level of efficiency of the use. An assessment of the level of safety, modernity, efficiency and other aspects such as cleanliness, completeness, maintenance, improvements for machines in the line with the use a scale of 0-5 was included and next, based on the validity index, the overall result was calculated. Modified McKinsey matrix was used to evaluate these factors and comparison the obtained results with other lines in the company. As a result of the conducted analyzes, it was pointed out that it is necessary to take improvement measures in the area of the worst-assessed factors.

Development of Measuring Equipment of Magnetic Field in BIW Spot-welding Environment

Put forward a robot’s automatic packaging and palletizing production line based on Modbus fieldbus control system, to improve efficiency of logistics and enhance the intelligence and versatility of packaging and palletizing system. The SIEMENS S7-1200 PLC sequence control is used to achieve the operation of material conveying line and packaging-palletizing line in automatic packaging and palletizing production line. Visual intelligence is used to recognize the information about shape, position and number of the workpieces to be packed. Through information exchange between MODBUS fieldbus and PLC, industrial robots, visual intelligent detection and host computer can enhance reliability and applicability of packing and palletizing system. It has been proved that the method improves the automation degree of the packaging and palletizing production line, the allocation of resources and system layout can be optimized, and the debugging cost can be saved.

Quality Improvement of Filter Product by Reducing Defect Printing Peel-off Area Seam (Case Study) in the Automotive Components Filter Industry

The development of the automotive industry in the world continues to grow, including also the development of the automotive industry in Indonesia, along with the development of the business, supporting industries that supply components for parts used for automotive must prepare it, especially in terms of quality, quantity, and accuracy of delivery. There are still several automotive failures in terms of quality that have caused recall, it’s as the reason why the research was conducted. Research carried out in one of the oil filter manufacturing industries where defect products namely peel off on the seaming area was reached 35.21%from the total amount of defects that occurred. The focus and purpose of the research are the effort to reduce printing defects. Several techniques are used in this research, such as work time measurement, line balancing approach, and some statistical tools for quality improvement, such as Pareto, fishbone diagrams, and why-why analysis. The result of the study was identified that the dominant cause of printing peel off on the seaming area was caused by the handling process on the packaging line when overlapping time. The handling process has been improved by reducing process handling with added transfer conveyors. Theeffectiveness of improvement has reported in March 2019 that the number of defect printing peels off the seaming area on oil filter products decreased by 46.74%

Simulation and Analysis of Preventive Maintenance Scheduling Techniques for Fruit-Roll Packaging Line

Fruit rolls are one of the most popular dried food snacks. As the popularity of fruit rolls increases significantly in the last decade, maintenance scheduling for fruit-roll packing lines is becoming more and more important. In order to study the various preventive maintenance (PM) scheduling techniques for the fruit-roll packaging line, this paper builds a simulation model to analyze PM scheduling techniques to reduce downtime and associated costs. Three PM scheduling techniques, which are Global Maintenance Order (GMO), Reliability-based Maintenance Order (RMO), and Value-based Maintenance Order (VMO), are considered. A multi-criteria decision-making approach based on utility theory is proposed to select the PM schedule that will give the best utility, performance, and reliability. Statistical and graphical multi-criteria decision-making analysis are also provided.

Henkel adds warehouse & detergents packaging line in Spain

Henkel adds warehouse & detergents packaging line in Spain

Failure analysis of a filling valve from a Brewery's beer filler

Abstract This paper describes a failure analysis carried out to a filling valve of a brewery beer filler. The filling valve under study is one of 120 filling valves belonging to the filler, an equipment dated 1996. This filler integrates a packaging line, in which several equipment compromise it, and the filler leads the production cadence. Hence, any malfunctioning or failure of the filler will affect the entire packaging line. The failure herein presented prevents the filling valve from performing accurately, requiring production to be stopped and the filling valve to be opened to solve the problem. The failure leads to empty and even over flooding bottles, which are subsequently rejected from the packaging line, causing a monetary waste that could be spared. Since the filler works 64,000 bottles per hour and has 120 filling valves, the failure of one filling valve could lead to 500 bottles being rejected in one hour. The main objective of this analysis is to avoid leakage and product loss. The failure is due to the existence of a solid residue deposit - identified as solidified beer - inside an area of the filling valve where only compressed air should circulate, preventing the proper movement of a compression helical spring. Until the reason for such deposit was figured out, several trials to eliminate a variety of hypothesis were carried out and, at the end, a modification in one of the parts of the filling valve was performed to avoid failure and keep the filler working accurately.