Packaging Line Automation & Integration
The brief. A packaging/consumer-goods manufacturer was running several packaging stations as islands of automation — each with its own controls, no shared line data, and slow, manual changeovers between formats. Throughput was capped by the hand-offs between machines, and diagnosing a stoppage meant checking each station in turn. They needed the line to behave as one coordinated machine.
What we did. Automation Republic delivered the integration turnkey. We brought infeed, forming, filling and case-packing under a single coordinated control architecture, with servo-driven motion for accurate, high-speed indexing and product handling. Where product handling demanded it, the design is robotics-ready — we integrate delta and pick-and-place robotics (including Codian Robotics) and AFAG handling modules for feeding and transfer. A line-level recipe HMI now drives format changeovers from stored jobs, and line data — counts, rates, downtime reasons — is surfaced to the operator and available to upstream systems.
The platform. The line was built on B&R motion and control — ACOPOS servo, X20 I/O and POWERLINK — for tight, real-time coordination across stations, and engineered in a single Automation Studio project so the whole line is maintained as one system. The approach stays vendor-independent: Siemens or Rockwell can anchor the build where a customer's fleet requires it. Safety interlocks and guarding (elobau, MRS Electronic) were brought up to current standards.
The result. The stations now run as one continuous, coordinated line — higher throughput, faster changeovers and a single place to see and diagnose the whole process. Every panel was manufactured and tested in our in-house shop, fully documented, and handed over with drawings, code and training. Local and VPN remote support keep it running and make future format additions straightforward.
Want your packaging stations running as one line? Speak to Automation Republic — +27 11 794 9684 · www.automation-republic.com.