New automated thermoforming packing machine is a ‘shaw’ thing

Derbyshire-based medical packaging manufacturer, Riverside Medical Packaging, has created the ‘Shawpak’, a space-saving, automated thermoforming packaging machine it believes overcomes many of the limitations of standard systems. 

Designed and developed by a team of engineers at Riverside Medical Packaging, and built in Derby, the new Shawpak-branded cleanroom thermoforming packaging machines offer manufactures a flexible, efficient and space-saving alternative to conventional systems.

Thanks to clever design and the use of a compactintegrated control solution, the Shawpak can replace a packing line that could stretch out to 20m with a unit that is under 2m in length. Riverside Medical says the cost advantages for operators are clearly significant, as the opportunity to increase production or re-purpose existing floor space is considerable.

“The high cost of maintaining a clean room production environment increases the benefits and reduces the ROI when using one of our machines” explained David Shaw, Riverside Medical’s CEO. “The company has been involved in contract manufacturing and machine development on behalf of the medical industry for over 40 years, so we knew the market for a solution was there.”

Having developed the initial concept, Riverside Medical approached Mitsubishi Electric to help it develop its vision of a super-compact design into a fast, efficient, robust and reliable machine.

The resultant Shawpak models are compact thermoforming sealing machines that can be loaded manually, or for additional speed and efficiency using an integrated Mitsubishi Electric robot.

Innovation on a drum

The main innovation, says Riverside Medical, is the forming, packing and sealing process which is now carried-out on a drum, rather than a linear conveyor system. The rotary motion of the drum, along with the sealing film is indexed using precision servo control while the product and package manipulation uses suction.

The product to be packed is loaded on-top of the drum and ejected into a discharge conveyor underneath. The webs of packaging material, for example PET or polyethylene sheets, plus the forming, sealing and cutting stations are positioned around the drum. Thanks to the rotary format, Shawpak machines start at 1.5m long and can occupy less than 2m2 of floorspace. This represents a reduction of up to 95 per cent compared to the space occupied by a traditional form fill sealing (FFS) machine.

“A comparable FFS machine can be anywhere from 7 to 20 metres in length depending on the packaging process requirements, occupying a working space of up to 40 square metres,” explained Ivor Rowe, Technical Manager at Riverside Medical. “As a result, a given cleanroom space can fit six times more packing machines with a Shawpak design, increasing both productivity and throughput.”

The rotary design of Shawpak also increases versatility and flexibility during packaging operations. Different forming drums with cavities of various dimensions are available, which Riverside Medical says can be easily removed and replaced in order to pack objects of different sizes and shapes on the same machine. In addition, the new concept ensures that every piece of packaging material is used, reducing the amount of waste from cut packaging material experienced by other designs.

It is possible to further improve productivity on the factory floor as well as maintaining a controlled env

ironment in the cleanroom more easily by adding a robotic arm for loading. “The traditional form fill sealing machines used in medical device packaging industries do not fit the modern requirements of plant flexibility, process optimisation and throughput. We believe our novel approach is a gamechanger that can revolutionise the sector,” Rowe added.

State-of-the-art automation

Mitsubishi Electric provided the Shawpak with a compact integrated control solution based on the company’s diminutive L-Series PLC, supplied with servo control and safety modules, HMIs and an optional MELFA articulated arm robot.

“We relied heavily on Mitsubishi Electric to realise this project,” said Shaw. “As this was a completely new concept for us, we needed an automation solution provider that could deliver on the PLC, servo and indexing aspects, as well as providing a cost-effective robot integration package.”

Mitsubishi Electric has been involved in the development of Shawpak since the initial planning stages, developing the strategy and addressing the project’s challenges. The main one being the extended functionality required versus the restricted space available.

Stephen Thornton, Key Account Manager at Mitsubishi Electric, added: “The size of the control panel in Shawpak is not only much smaller than in a traditional FFS machines, but outright one of the most compact we have seen. Hence the reason we suggested using the latest MELSEC-L Series PLC to provide a compact solution with optimal performance.”

While there isn’t lots of IO to manage, (the components are connected via a CC-Link open control network) the PLC connects the Mitsubishi Electric’s GOT2000 HMI operator terminal, MELSEC-WS safety system, MELSEC-L series simple motion module, the pneumatic valves, as well as controlling the six-axis MELFA RV-F series robotic arm.