A method of tracking a box and correlating a quality characteristic of the box to an overall equipment effectiveness of a packaging line that manipulates the box during a product packaging process includes: at a first location, associating a unique identifier with a pre-erected form of the box, capturing at least one quality characteristic of the box, and storing the at least one quality characteristic and the associated unique identifier in a database; moving the pre-erected form of the box to a second location; at the second location, converting the pre-erected form of the box into an erected box, manipulating the erected box through the packaging line, and in an event where the erected box is involved in a disruption in the packaging line correlating the unique identifier of the associated erected box with the associated disruption and saving a record of the disruption and the unique identifier in a storage medium.

A method and system of fault prediction in a packaging machine is disclosed. The method comprises registering data values associated with the motion of independently movable objects along a track in the packaging machine; determining a distribution of the data values; calculating a measure of central tendency of the data values in the distribution; calculating a quantified measure of a shape of the distribution; associating the measure of central tendency with said quantified measure of the shape as a coupled set of condition parameters; determining a degree of dispersion of a plurality of coupled sets of condition parameters associated with a plurality of motion cycles of the independently movable objects; and comparing the degree of dispersion with a dispersion threshold value, or determining a trend of the degree of dispersion over time, for said fault prediction.

A system for automating packaging of varying shipment sets comprises a control unit for receiving from a database stored information on the size and number of items forming a shipment set according to a dispatch order, an information acquiring device for acquiring current information on the items being actually arranged for said shipment set, said information acquiring device being communicatively coupled with said control unit and said control unit being configured to calculate, either based on the information from said database or from the information acquiring device, the dimensions of a custom sized cardboard box for packaging the shipment set, a box forming station for forming said custom sized cardboard box having a bottom wall, four side walls and an open top, a packaging station for packaging the items forming the shipment set into said custom sized cardboard box, and a lid placing station for closing said custom sized cardboard box with an appropriate lid, wherein said control unit is configured for performing a verification using the current information from said information acquiring device and the stored information from said database to verify that the actual shipment set is formed according to the dispatch order.

An automated parts handling system includes a conveyor, a robotic arm configured to pick parts from a parts receptacle and place the picked parts on the conveyor, a vision device disposed over or adjacent the conveyor and configured to determine the number of parts picked by the robotic arm from the parts receptacle and placed on the conveyor, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the conveyor, the robotic arm, and the vision device. The memory includes program instructions executable by the processor to implement a pick process configured to receive information from the vision device on the number of parts picked by the robotic arm and placed on the conveyor, based on the received information regarding the number of picked parts, selectively control the robotic arm to retrieve from the conveyor a number of the picked parts, and selectively control the robotic arm to place one or more of the retrieved parts back in the parts receptacle when the number of parts picked by the robotic arm differs from a predetermined number of parts specified in the program instructions.

An article processing apparatus (1) according to an embodiment discharges an article to a downstream apparatus (2) disposed downstream. The article processing apparatus includes: a display (110); a capturing unit (100) that captures a picture including at least part of the downstream apparatus; and a controller (30) that displays, in a case where a processing operation of the article remains stopped in the article processing apparatus, on the display, the picture captured by the capturing unit.

A method for operating a packaging machine having at least one electric drive motor, the drive motor driving at least one functional unit of the packaging machine in a program-controlled manner when producing packaging using the following steps: (a) loading a parameter set into the control of the packaging machine, the parameter set containing at least one load parameter which limits the torque or the current consumption of the drive motor to a maximum when producing packaging; (b) operating the packaging machine for producing packaging, the maximally occurring actual value of the torque mustered at the drive motor or the current consumed by the drive motor being measured during operation; (c) determining a new load parameter as a function of the maximum actual value; (d) saving the new load parameter in a parameter set allocated to the packaging to be produced.

The invention relates to a container treatment machine for treating containers, in particular in the beverage-processing industry, medical technology, or the cosmetics industry, the container treatment machine comprising a control unit for controlling the function of the container treatment machine and at least one treatment unit for treating the containers; the container treatment machine is designed to treat the containers in exactly one way; the container treatment machine comprises at least one component which can output data relating to its operating state and/or the operating state of the container treatment machine to the control unit; and the control unit comprises a neural network which is configured and trained to use the data to determine whether a deviation of the operating state of the container treatment machine from a normal state is present and/or imminent.

A packaging system for high flexibility and speed box-last packaging comprises one or more dimensional scanning sensors that are configured to scan a group of one or more target products that are to be boxed and gather dimension information describing physical dimensions of the group of one or more target products. The system also comprises one or more packaging-production machines that are configured to generate custom-made packaging templates that conform to a pre-determined set of packaging template types. Additionally, the system comprises a packaging template buffer that comprises physically divided sections that contain multiple packaging templates selected from the pre-determined set of packaging template types that are generated by the one or more packaging-production machines. Each of the packaging templates are organized within the physically divided section based upon packaging template type.

A system (200) for controlling a manufacturing process for packaging units (301′, 302′) is disclosed, the packaging units are manufactured from a packaging material (301, 302) comprising machine readable identifiers (c1, c2). A control unit (210) associates the identifiers with corresponding data images (201, 202) of the packaging units, wherein for a first process application (a1) to manipulate packaging material (301) based on a first set of process parameters (p1), the control unit is configured to store at least part of the first set of process parameters (p1) to the associated data image, wherein for a subsequent second process application (a2) to manipulate said packaging material (301), read at least part of the first set of process parameters (p1) stored in said associated data image (201) to control the second process application (a2) based on at least part of the first set of process parameters (p1).

Devices, systems, and methods for autonomously queueing a plurality of folded household laundry articles in a packing queue are described. A packing system includes a rotating platform configured to rotate a folded laundry article for directional placement in the packing queue, at least one packing queue platform receiving the folded laundry article into a packing queue disposed thereon, and a double ended conveyor. The double ended conveyor includes a retrieving end and a depositing end. The conveyor is configured to be mounted to a gantry for traveling along the length of the queue platform and cantilevering the retrieving end over the rotating platform for retrieving the folded laundry article and the depositing end over the packing queue platform for depositing the folded laundry article onto either a surface of the packing queue platform or another folded laundry article of the plurality of household laundry articles.