What’s beyond Gen3? While some say that rumblings about current technology having moved beyond Gen3 are so much hot air, Bosch Rexroth Corp., Hoffman Estates, Ill., produces what it calls GenNext intelligent machinery.
It gathers, shares and manipulates diagnostic and production information, says John Wenzler, Bosch Rexroth packaging-industry corporate account executive. For open communications to the factory, as well as the head office, “the information can be plugged into a digital dashboard—and that’s a real advantage,” Wenzler says. “However, it does have to be translated to SAP, J.D. Edwards or whatever kind of ERP (enterprise resource planning) system the manufacturer employs in order to make it useful,” he notes.
One technology enticement is predictive-maintenance functionality. For instance, the GenNext technology forecasts wear for connected mechanical devices such as belts and gear trains. Also, Wenzler mentions, there are linear and pneumatic devices, as well as a communications network, on the technology’s sensor grid to gather mean-time-to-failure data.
The advanced diagnostics features are valuable to WinPak, a San Bernadino, Calif.-based original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that makes condiment packagers for Best Foods, General Mills, Kraft, Unilever and other major food packagers. Through dial-up or Ethernet connections, “I can get online with the machine and diagnose from here—or remotely from anywhere else in the world—and that’s an advantage,” says WinPak systems engineer Kenny Teixeira.
In one of its third-generation W-18 food-packaging machines, WinPak is using Bosch Rexroth’s Visual Motion 10 integrated motion-and-logic-controls technology.
One principal reason WinPak chose the technology is functionality for combining PLC and servo control in one package. Part of that “it’s-in-one-box” functionality is more ladder logic, as well as IEC 61131-3 compliant operation, notes Teixeira. Also, “we’re going to have inline I/O where we can have remote-control cabinets and servo controls.” WinPak has included Rockwell Software’s RSView HMI package.
See the story that goes with this sidebar: Machine Control thinks inside of the Box
