Emerson will present new solutions that drive operational excellence in packaging and food and beverage processing applications at Pack Expo International 2022 on October 23-26 in Chicago. Today’s packaging lines must accommodate an unprecedented level of product variety and packaging complexities, but there are powerful automation capabilities that can significantly improve productivity, efficiency and sustainability for consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies. Emerson’s tools, technology and expertise can help packaging and production lines reduce waste, empower decision making, improve facility safety, sharpen the accuracy of critical measurements, increase machine availability and much more. 

Innovation Stage session:

In addition to its advanced solutions, Emerson will also present "Reduce Waste & Increase Efficiency in Clean-in-Place (CIP) Process." During the workshop, Emerson’s manager of business development, Vince Massey, will share seven common CIP efficiency challenges and the most effective ways to solve them using proper measurement instrumentation. 

Pack Expo attendees can join the 12 p.m. session on October 25 at Innovation Stage 1 (N4560) and find the latest Emerson product offerings at the Emerson booth, North Building – N-4736. Emerson experts will be readily available on site for interviews and booth walk-throughs.

Product highlights:

The GSX-E1 Series: Elite Precision is the first of a new generation of ultrasonic welders based on the Branson GSX Ultrasonic Welding Platform, which supports the growing demand for energy-efficient assembly of a variety of more challenging materials, including bioplastics and nonwovens. This modular, flexible joining solution provides greater precision and control, ensuring weld quality and improved operational efficiency. An advanced actuation system reduces trigger force and improves position accuracy, leading to faster, high-performance welding. This is complemented by hardware and software features that simplify setup, operation and maintenance, while digital connectivity supports Industry 4.0/IIoT applications that provide CPGs access to actionable performance and diagnostic data. 

From conveying to assembly, many applications in today’s packaging lines can benefit from the energy efficiency and power of electrical linear motion. Emerson’s Aventics Series SPRA electric rod-style linear actuator is a cost-effective, high-performance solution, offering enhanced load capacity, accuracy and reliability CPGs need to maximize productivity. In addition to providing outstanding precision and repeatability, the Series SPRA is also extremely versatile and flexible, with a choice of three different screw technologies that allow implementation within a wide range of applications and can meet exacting application requirements. Compliance with the ISO-15552 standard, online selection tools and a wide range of mounting accessories ensures the appropriate implementation. 

It’s estimated that food and beverage plants spend 30 percent of utility resources on clean-in-place operations and lose valuable time during changeovers — but they don’t have to. Emerson’s new CIP Utilities and Automated Reporting Analytics package delivers utilities monitoring and automated reporting for clean-in-place (CIP) and steam-in-place (SIP) applications. Designed for the food and beverage industries, the package can be delivered via PACEdge or Movicon. 

Smart pneumatic sensors are highly effective sustainability tools that can help CPGs reliably save energy, reduce costs and meet ambitious targets. Emerson’s Aventics Series AF2 airflow sensor has successfully improved the energy efficiency of packaging equipment in a variety of applications, including food and beverage, personal care and even labels. Emerson now offers a high flow model of this advanced sensor that propels compressed air monitoring beyond individual machines to benefit larger air lines and systems. This expanded capability allows personnel to easily optimize energy consumption across an entire packaging facility and improve overall plant sustainability.

Movicon.NExT HMI/SCADA is a highly modular, highly scalable platform that goes beyond SCADA to solve automation problems for both CPGs and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), from the single machine level to a complete plantwide industrial internet of things (IIoT) project implementation. Among Movicon.NExT modules, Movicon Pro.Lean provides performance data and analytics for evaluations of OEE and Movicon Pro.Energy measures and tracks consumption, while the advanced Movicon NExT.AR solves operational problems through visualization tools that allow personnel to evaluate previously unreachable equipment. For maximum flexibility, Emerson also provides Movicon WebHMI, an HTML5-based visualization tool that can be used as a stand-alone HMI product running on Windows or Linux operator panels, or as a Web Client for Movicon.NExT SCADA applications, as well as Connext, an industrial protocol gateway. 

Industrial edge software and solutions help members of the packaging and food, and beverage process industries analyze and solve problems where they occur — at the machine edge. PACSystems Edge Solutions include the true edge controllers, edge computing devices and compact controllers and leverage Movicon.NExT, WebHMI, Connext OPC UA server and the PACEdge platforms in optimized software packages to provide powerful and flexible connectivity and visualization and a cloud-enabled toolset. PACSystems makes the move to the edge easy for members of the packaging and process industries.

The PACSystems RSTi-EP CPE200 compact controller family delivers large programmable logic controller (PLC) capability in a small, cost-effective form factor so packaging OEMs do not have to sacrifice performance for price. It provides security-by-design, open programming and open communications built in, significantly reducing cost and complexity for OEMs and CPGs. A range of advanced features come standard, such as OPC UA communication over high-speed 1-Gb Ethernet and C programming capabilities, plus the advantages of Emerson support. In addition, it includes analytics and is IIoT-ready, future-proofing packaging and process systems for new technologies or existing equipment.

The Micro Motion 1600 Coriolis Transmitter is a power-over-ethernet transmitter that supports customers’ upgrades and retrofits. The Micro Motion 1600 Coriolis Transmitter is a scalable solution for facilities that want to make a gradual transition to remote flow data collection, monitoring and configuration. The smallest power-over-ethernet Coriolis transmitter on the market, the Micro Motion 1600 is available in aluminum or hygienic stainless steel, making it an appropriate solution for food and beverage applications.