Packaging Line Research Articles

New robotic loading system allows flexibility for shelf ready packaging lines

New robotic loading system allows flexibility for shelf ready packaging lines

Application of fuzzy optimization to a supply chain network design: A case study of an edible vegetable oils manufacturer

This study applies fuzzy sets to integrate the supply chain network of an edible vegetable oils manufacturer. The proposed fuzzy multi-objective linear programming model attempts to simultaneously minimize the total transportation costs. The first part of the total transportation costs is between suppliers and silos; and rest one is between manufacturer and warehouses. The approach incorporates all operating realities and actual flow patterns at production/distribution network with reference to demands of warehouses, capacities of tin and pet packaging lines. The model has been formulated as a multi objective linear programming model where data are modeled by triangular fuzzy numbers. Finally, the developed fuzzy model is applied for the case study, compiled the results and discussed.

Thin Laminate Films for Barrier Packaging Application – Influence of Down Gauging and Substrate Surface Properties on the Permeation Properties

A reduction in thickness of barrier laminated film systems generally leads to a quality decrease of the resulting packaging materials' functional properties. Especially for food packaging applications, adequate oxygen and water barrier properties are indispensable. The focus of this study was therefore the development of thin film systems using metallized aluminium or ethyl vinyl alcohol barrier laminates with low oxygen and water vapour transmission properties. Biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate and biaxially oriented polypropylene aluminium‐coated thin film laminates as well as corresponding ethyl vinyl alcohol film systems could be successfully produced with oxygen transmission rates of <0.5 cm³(STP)/(m² d bar) and water barrier values of <0.1 g/(m² d). It could be confirmed that the film thickness of these materials within the range of the investigated dimensions does not have an influence on the barrier properties. In fact, the parameters of the production process influence the functional properties of the film systems and must therefore be adapted. Machinability of these excellent thin film systems requires further investigation on packaging lines before they can be transferred to packaging application. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Research on the Layout and Process of the Beverage Packaging Line Using High Speed Robots

To save the labor cost, industry robot is applied in production line. This paper deals with the design of the beverage packaging line using high speed robots, which will be applied in Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co., Ltd. to satisfy their requirement. On the basis of investigation of the previous line, the packaging process is briefly addressed. Taking into account the circumstance of the workshop area, the layout of the packaging line is proposed. With Petri net technology, the model of the beverage packaging line is built and by analyzing the model, it is proved that the whole system is reachable, bounded and reversible. In addition, the Petri net model builds the theoretical basis for the network control of the whole packaging line.

New robotic loading system allows flexibility for shelf ready packaging lines

New robotic loading system allows flexibility for shelf ready packaging lines

Online Planning to Control a Packaging Infeed System

In this paper, we investigate a novel application of online planning and scheduling: controlling an automated infeeder for a packaging line of food and consumer packaged goods. In this system, products arrive continuously at high-speed from the end of the production line and need to be arranged into a specific configuration for downstream primary and secondary packaging machines. In collaboration with a domain expert from the packaging industry, we developed an innovative design for a reconfigurable parallel infeed system using a matrix of interchangeable smart belts. We also adapted our online model-based Plantrol planner to this domain. Our planner can control various configurations of the new in-feed system through simulation both in nominal planning and when runtime failures occur. We are also building a small physical prototype to validate the new design and our sofeware framework.

A Productivity Study of Digital Printing in the Packaging Industry

SUMMARYIn this study, the suitability of digital printing is evaluated in short runs in packaging industry. The image quality of digital printing is high enough to be used in packaging. The advantages of digital printing and modern converting processes include e.g. the possibilities of using variable data, on‐demand manufacturing and cost‐effectiveness within short print runs. The limitations may include a smaller colour gamut compared to traditional presses, format size, productivity and lower printing speed. In addition, the variety of substrates for use is smaller than in traditional printing.The productivity of the world's first integrated digital printing line designed for short runs was tested by simulating various packaging runs in production. For further analysis, an MS Excel calculation tool was developed. In the calculations, the productivity of a digital packaging line was compared with that of a standard packaging line based on an offline offset printing technique. The cost advantages to be achieved by digital printing techniques in short runs are discussed in two scenarios. The scenarios address the subjects' break‐even point and inline production process.The results of the study show that it is possible to achieve significant cost savings using the inline digital printing and converting systems when compared with traditional offline manufacturing systems in short runs. However, as there are numerous variables included to the production process, it is impossible to present any exact numbers for the break‐even point. In this study, the break‐even point calculated is estimated to be in the range of 4000–8000 packages, depending on the package and sheet sizes. The greatest difference in price per package occurs when the runs are below 2000 packages. Based on the calculations, the inline process itself can decrease the payback time for the machine line as much as 20–35%.One significant factor to be mindful of is that when digital printing is used in the short runs, it often releases machine time from the traditional presses. This part of the analysis has not been included in this study, but using the calculation tool, it is easy to simulate different scenarios and perform further analyses on the systems. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Implementation issues in RFID-based anti-counterfeiting systems

RFID has emerged as a potential tool to combat product counterfeiting, which undermines the global economy hugely. Recently, a number of anti-counterfeiting approaches have been proposed for such purpose. This paper presents a track-and-trace system for RFID-based anti-counterfeiting, and addresses possible implementation issues, such as tag selection, product tagging, tag programming and locking. A packaging line for bottled products is developed and integrated with the proposed system for investigation of these issues. Experiments are conducted to determine the critical tag moving speed beyond which the tag programming rate or reliability of tagged products being transferred on a convey drops significantly. The critical tag moving speed is vital not only for determining the maximum production throughput possible, but also for setting up RFID equipment needed to ensure tagged products with erroneous tagging can be sorted out from the packaging line accordingly.

Optimization Design of Walking Beam Based on Stiffness Constraint

The excessive deformation of walking beam which is used in automatic packaging line of cathode copperplates is analysed. The mathematical model of optimization design of the walking beam is established, using deflection less than 7mm as a constraint condition. The optimization is completed by COSMOSWorks and the most optimal deflection is 6.95mm, the most optimal mass of the walking beam is decreased 25.2%. The optimization also indicates that strength of the walking beam is surplus and further optimization is feasible.

APOBEC3-mediated hypermutation of retroviral vectors produced from some retrovirus packaging cell lines

APOBEC3 proteins are packaged into retrovirus virions and can hypermutate retroviruses during reverse transcription. We found that HT-1080 human fibrosarcoma cells hypermutate retroviruses, and that the HT-1080 cell-derived FLYA13 retrovirus packaging cells also hypermutate a retrovirus vector produced using these cells. We found no hypermutation of the same vector produced by the mouse cell-derived packaging line PT67 or by human 293 cells transfected with the vector and retrovirus packaging plasmids. We expect that avoidance of vector hypermutation will be particularly important for vectors used in gene therapy, wherein mutant proteins might stimulate deleterious immune responses.

Synergistic Ca2+ Responses by Gαi- and Gαq-coupled G-protein-coupled Receptors Require a Single PLCβ Isoform That Is Sensitive to Both Gβγ and Gαq

Synergistic Ca2+ Responses by Gαi- and Gαq-coupled G-protein-coupled Receptors Require a Single PLCβ Isoform That Is Sensitive to Both Gβγ and Gαq

Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerase-1 (PARP-1) Contributes to the Barrier Function of a Vertebrate Chromatin Insulator

The prototypic chromatin insulator cHS4 has proven effective in reducing silencing chromosomal position effects in a variety of settings. Most of this barrier insulator activity has been mapped to a 250-bp core region, as well as to several proteins that bind this region. However, recent studies from our laboratory demonstrated that an extended 400-bp core region of the cHS4 element is necessary to achieve full barrier insulator activity when used as a single copy in the context of recombinant gammaretroviral and lentiviral vectors. In this study, electrophoretic gel mobility shift assays revealed specific DNA-protein binding activities associated with the distal portion of this extended core region. Affinity purification and tandem mass spectrometry studies led to the identification of one of these proteins as poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1). The identity of this binding activity as PARP-1 was subsequently verified by a variety of biochemical studies in vitro and by chromatin immunoprecipitation studies in vivo. Functional studies with gammaretroviral reporter vectors in cell lines and primary mouse bone marrow progenitor cultures showed that cHS4 barrier activity was abrogated upon mutation of the putative PARP-1-binding site or upon treatment with a PARP inhibitor, respectively. The barrier activity of the cHS4 element was also found to be abrogated in studies using bone marrow from Parp1-null mice. Taken together, this study demonstrates that binding of PARP-1 plays a key functional role in the barrier activity of the extended cHS4 insulator core element.

A Hierarchical Simulation Flow for Return-Loss Optimization of Microprocessor Package Vertical Interconnects

Design of package- and board-level interconnects utilizing full-wave electromagnetic solvers, is becoming increasingly important owing to increased frequencies of operation, miniaturization, and reduced time to market. Thus, parameterization, optimization, and statistical analysis tools are becoming an invaluable part of a designer's armory. Leveraging a previously developed fast full-wave electromagnetic solver, this paper addresses the development of a framework for package interconnect design. Parametric sweeps are conducted to show the existence of optimal designs and to select the best routing strategies. Having applied the popular response surface methodology for optimization and having outlined its limitations for higher-dimensional problems, a general optimization scheme is proposed and illustrated on a differential package interconnect line. The proposed methodology features a dimensionality reduction scheme and a reusable, multidimensional look-up table preceding the global optimization phase, which is facilitated by a smooth interpolation scheme based on splines. The second phase features a custom local optimizer incorporating all the variables without any dimension reduction. This methodology has been applied to automated synthesis of a differential package line resulting in a significant improvement of the return loss performance. A statistical analysis methodology, based on utilizing the gradient, has been presented to arrive at the spread in the differential return loss, occurring due to manufacturing tolerances, around the designed response.

Enhanced receptor expression and in vitro effector function of a murine-human hybrid MART-1-reactive T cell receptor following a rapid expansion

Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) genetically modified to express T cell receptors (TCR) specific to known melanoma antigens, such as melanoma antigen recognized by T cells-1 (MART-1), and gp100 can elicit objective tumor regression when administered to patients with metastatic melanoma. It has also been demonstrated that modifications within the constant regions of a fully human TCR can enhance surface expression and stability without altering antigen specificity. In this study, we evaluated the substitution of murine constant regions for their human counterpart within the DMF5 MART-1-specific TCR. Unlike previous studies, all modified TCRs were inserted into retroviral vectors and analyzed for expression and function following a clinical transduction protocol. PBL were transduced with retroviral supernatant generated from stable packaging lines encoding melanoma-specific TCRs. This protocol resulted in high levels of antigen-specific T cells without the need for additional peptide stimulation and selection. Both the human and murinized TCR efficiently transduced PBL; however, the murinized TCR exhibited significantly higher tetramer binding, mean fluorescence intensity, as well as, increased in vitro effector function following our clinical transduction and expansion protocol. Additional TCR modifications including insertion of a second disulfide bond or the linker modifications evaluated herein did not significantly enhance TCR expression or subsequent in vitro effector function. We conclude that the substitution of a human constant region with a murine constant region was sufficient to increase receptor expression and tetramer binding as well as antitumor activity of the DMF5 TCR and could be a tool to augment other antigen-specific TCR.

Optimizing Delivery of Global Pharmaceutical Packaging Solutions, Using Systems Engineering Patterns

AbstractThe global pharmaceutical supply chain, a complex system, involves manufacturing, distribution, and commercial wholesale/retail processes. Products in this system‐of‐systems are critical to health, subject to regulation from a web of trans‐national, national, and state/provincial authorities, and subject to commercial manufacturing, marketing, and distribution practices of numerous enterprises. Introductions of change into this environment is a challenging undertaking, demanding awareness of the many forms of and constraints upon this system, while delivering at the brisk rate required by law and commerce. For example, in response to drug counterfeiting and grey markets, national and local governments are currently introducing (differing) legal requirements to uniquely label and track pharmaceutical products to the individual retail bottle/package level, as they move through distribution. This paper describes the response of a global pharmaceutical manufacturer, re‐engineering multiple global product and country‐unique pharmaceutical product packaging lines, using Systems Engineering Patterns to reduce impacts of variable requirement and design configurations.

PPE seals used in filling and packaging lines at GlaxoSmithKline

Precision Polymer Engineering Ltd (PPE) has helped healthcare company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to increase production at its topicals filling and packaging lines, based at its site in Barnard Castle, Teesdale, UK.

A High Molecular Weight Melanoma-Associated Antigen–Specific Chimeric Antigen Receptor Redirects Lymphocytes to Target Human Melanomas

Immunotherapy, particularly the adoptive cell transfer (ACT) of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL), is a very promising therapy for metastatic melanoma. Some patients unable to receive TIL have been successfully treated with autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), genetically modified to express human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I antigen-restricted, melanoma antigen-reactive T-cell receptors; however, substantial numbers of patients remain ineligible due to the lack of expression of the restricting HLA class I allele. We sought to overcome this limitation by designing a non-MHC-restricted, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) targeting the high molecular weight melanoma-associated antigen (HMW-MAA), which is highly expressed on more than 90% of human melanomas but has a restricted distribution in normal tissues. HMW-MAA-specific CARs containing an antigen recognition domain based on variations of the HMW-MAA-specific monoclonal antibody 225.28S and a T-cell activation domain based on combinations of CD28, 4-1BB, and CD3zeta activation motifs were constructed within a retroviral vector to allow stable gene transfer into cells and their progeny. Following optimization of the HMW-MAA-specific CAR for expression and function in human PBL, these gene-modified T cells secreted cytokines, were cytolytic, and proliferated in response to HMW-MAA-expressing cell lines. Furthermore, the receptor functioned in both CD4(+) and CD8(+) cells, was non-MHC restricted, and reacted against explanted human melanomas. To evaluate this HMW-MAA-specific CAR in patients with metastatic melanoma, we developed a clinical-grade retroviral packaging line. This may represent a novel means to treat the majority of patients with advanced melanoma, most notably those unable to receive current ACT therapies.

Assessment of operation management for beer packaging line based on field failure data: A case study

Reliability analysis for packaging of beer production over a period of 9-month was carried out. The most important failure modes were identified and the descriptive statistics at failure and machine level were calculated. Several theoretical distributions were applied and best fit of failure data was identified. The reliability and hazard rate models of the failure data were determined to provide an estimate of the current operation management (i.e. maintenance policy, training, spare parts) and improve the line efficiency. It was found out that (a) the availability of the beer filling/capping machine is 94.80%, (b) the failures due to mechanical and pneumatic causes amount to 57.1% of all the failures of the machine, (c) the time-between-failure (TBF) was drastically decreased thereby suggesting that the probability to fail increased and the current maintenance policy should be revised, and (d) the failure times follow the normal distribution whereas the times-to-repair (TTR) a failure comply with the logistic distribution.

Inhibition and Activation by CD244 Depends on CD2 and Phospholipase C-γ1

Regulation by the NK and T cell surface receptor CD244 in mice and humans depends both on engagement at the cell surface by CD48 and intracellular interactions with SAP and EAT-2. Relevance to human disease by manipulating CD244 in mouse models is complicated by rodent CD2 also binding CD48. We distinguish between contributions of mouse CD244 and CD2 on engagement of CD48 in a mouse T cell hybridoma. CD2 and CD244 both contribute positively to the immune response as mutation of proline-rich motifs or tyrosine motifs in the tails of CD2 and CD244, respectively, result in a decrease in antigen-specific interleukin-2 production. Inhibitory effects of mouse CD244 are accounted for by competition with CD2 at the cell surface for CD48. In humans CD2 and CD244 are engaged separately at the cell surface but biochemical data suggest a potential conserved intracellular link between the two receptors through FYN kinase. We identify a novel signaling mechanism for CD244 through its potential to recruit phospholipase C-gamma1 via the conserved phosphorylated tyrosine motif in the tail of the adaptor protein EAT-2, which we show is important for function.

Optimisation multi-objectif pour le problème de dimensionnement de buffers

In this paper, we are studying the buffer sizing problem in production lines. It is one of the most studied subjects in the literature with one criterion but shows a lack of studies in its multiobjective form. Therefore, we present two multiobjective optimization techniques to solve the problem and which are: the second version of the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA2) and a multiobjective ant colony optimization algorithm. Three measures are used in order to compare the performances of the two developed algorithms. The algorithms are then applied for buffers sizing in a packaging line. A simulation model with the ARENA software is used for the performances evaluations. The simulation model is coupled with the optimization algorithms applying then the simulation based optimization technique. The numerical results of the algorithm based on ant colony are very relevant and show an advantage compared to the SPEA2.