Food Engineering logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Food Engineering logo
  • NEWS
    • Latest Headlines
    • Manufacturing News
    • People & Industry News
    • Plant Openings
    • Recalls
    • Regulatory Watch
    • Supplier News
  • PRODUCTS
    • New Plant Products
    • New Retail Products
  • TOPICS
    • Alternative Protein
    • Automation
    • Cannabis
    • Cleaning | Sanitation
    • Fabulous Food Plants
    • Food Safety
    • Maintenance Strategies
    • OEE
    • Packaging
    • Sustainability
    • More
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Plant Construction Survey
    • Plant of the Year
    • Sustainable Plant of the Year
    • State of Food Manufacturing
    • Top 100 Food & Beverage Companies
  • MEDIA
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • FOOD MASTER
  • EVENTS
    • Food Automation & Manufacturing Symposium and Expo
    • Industry Events
  • RESOURCES
    • eNewsletter
    • Custom Content & Marketing Services
    • FE Store
    • Government Links
    • Industry Associations
    • Market Research
    • Classified Ads
  • EMAGAZINE
    • eMagazine
    • Archive Issue
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP!

Food Packaging: Standardization effort for packaging machinery begins to pay off

March 25, 2003


Jeffrey Wilkins, controls engineer at Food Machinery Sales Inc., displays the Kinetix 6000 servo drives in the company’s new Mach III horizontal flow wrapper. The machine is among the first to incorporate OMAC’s machine state model, a standardization initiative that promises to simplify packaging machinery integration.
THE TOWER OF BABEL THAT CHARACTERIZES intercommunications between food and beverage packaging machines is beginning to crumble. Several machines that comply to the state model devised by the OMAC Packaging Workgroup were on display at the recent PACK EXPO trade show in Chicago, surprising even the model’s developers.

Known as PackML, the state model provides a common set of definitions for servo-driven packaging machinery states, such as Ready, Running, Holding and Aborted. It is patterned after the S88 state model for batch processing and provides the basis for a common language for supervisory control systems and other plant-floor integration efforts, according to Fred Putnam, chairman of the PackML team of OMAC (Open Modular Architecture Controls).

The state model is a roadmap for machine functions and the paths they follow. Manufacturers are free to omit various states—a printer could go directly from Off to Running, for example, skipping the Stopped, Starting and Ready states defined in the model—but the model clearly defines the various states, giving machines for multiple suppliers a common language.

“People aren’t even using the same names for the states currently,” says Putnam, a consultant to Markem Corp., a Keene, N.H., maker of marking and coding equipment for food packagers and others. “If people apply the same terms to the equipment’s states, it is much easier to integrate machines into a supervisory control.”

Markem became the first supplier to adopt the state model when it introduced last spring several products networked with the common user interface. “We’re committed to a common definition of machine states, and it has direct benefits because we sell to OEMs,” explains Putnam. “This makes it easier for them to integrate our units into their equipment.”

The state model got another boost during PACK EXPO with the announcement Pharmacia Corp. specified it in an order for tube filling equipment. Machines making use of the standard could be found at various booths on the trade floor, including three units from Campbell Wrapper Corp. and a horizontal flow wrapper from Food Machinery Sales Inc. (FMS).

FMS’s Mach III also was notable for its use of the Allen-Bradley Kinetix 6000 servo drive and a ControlLogix controller, features that greatly simplify wiring and programming, according to Jeffrey Wilkins, FMS controls engineer. “You accomplish a lot with just a few motion commands, and that simplifies diagnostics.” Setup time and functional expansion is a relative snap: Wilkins says a fourth servo axis was added to the machine in minutes, not hours.

The state model’s most ambitious application to date involves a retrofitted packaging line at Hershey Foods. The line includes obsolete wrappers with mechanical drives that were replaced with A-B motion control technology and mechatronics design. By implementing the state model, engineers were able to effect modular integration. “Each state represents a different metric for reporting,” which will help pinpoint problems and permit standardized servicing, according to project engineer Kevin Feidenzer.

Share This Story

Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!

Recommended Content

JOIN TODAY
to unlock your recommendations.

Already have an account? Sign In

  • Global Organic Food & Beverage Market to Grow

    Global Organic Food & Beverage Market to Grow

    With a CAGR of 12.07%, Bonafide Research estimates this...
    Latest headlines
  • skilled MEP worker

    Predicting Food and Beverage Manufacturing Trends for 2024

    The two words that should be kept in mind are labor and...
    Automation
    By: Derrick Teal
  • cleaning and sanitation

    The basics of cleaning and sanitation in food plants

    Sanitation maintains or restores a state of cleanliness...
    Food Safety
    By: Richard F. Stier
Manage My Account
  • eMagazine
  • eNewsletter
  • Online Registration
  • Manage My Preferences
  • Customer Service

More Videos

Popular Stories

Cargill Cocoa Plant

Cargill Invests in its Cocoa Supply Chain

Campbell’s Utah plant

Going for Gold(fish): Inside The Campbell’s Company’s $160M Cracker Plant Expansion

Woman engineer on construction site

Exploring the Impact of Women Engineers on the Food Industry

CHECK OUT OUR NEW ESSENTIAL TOPICS

Alternative ProteinAutomationCleaning/SanitationFabulous Food Plants

Food SafetyMaintenance StrategiesOEE

PackagingSustainability

Events

June 17, 2025

Refrigerated & Frozen Foods’ State of the Cold Chain

On Demand Kelley Rodriguez, Editor in Chief of Refrigerated & Frozen Foods, will be joined in this 60-minute webinar by industry experts to help unpack the latest research.

July 23, 2025

Decarbonizing Process Heat: What You Should Know and Next Steps

Driven by climate goals, business risk, client interest, and resilience considerations, food and beverage companies are increasingly turning their attention to decarbonizing their production processes.

View All Submit An Event

Products

Recent Advances in Ready-to-Eat Food Technology

Recent Advances in Ready-to-Eat Food Technology

See More Products

Plant of the Year

Related Articles

  • Food Packaging
    Is packaging waste off the radar?

    See More
  • HACCP plans continue to pay off

    See More
  • PMMI

    PMMI Report: Packaging machinery Shipments to reach $8.5B by 2020

    See More

Related Products

See More Products
  • composites.jpg

    Composites Materials for Food Packaging

  • handbookfoodscience.jpg

    Handbook of Food Science and Technology 2: Food Process Engineering and Packaging

  • download.jpg

    Recent Advances in Ready-to-Eat Food Technology

See More Products

Events

View AllSubmit An Event
  • September 9, 2015

    The Latest Processing and Packaging Solutions for Prepared Food: Perfecting Particles, Taste and Appearance

    On Demand This webinar will cover the right production design to match flexibility and lower production costs, decreasing costs while improving the quality on processing emulsions, the best solutions to process and preserve the integrity of chunks and particles and intelligent and cost effective packaging solutions for prepared foods
View AllSubmit An Event
×

Elevate your expertise in food engineering with unparalleled insights and connections.

Get the latest industry updates tailored your way.

JOIN TODAY!
  • RESOURCES
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • Food Master
    • Store
    • Want More
  • SIGN UP TODAY
    • Create Account
    • eMagazine
    • eNewsletter
    • Customer Service
    • Manage Preferences
  • SERVICES
    • Marketing Services
    • Reprints
    • Market Research
    • List Rental
    • Survey/Respondent Access
  • STAY CONNECTED
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • X (Twitter)
  • PRIVACY
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • TERMS & CONDITIONS
    • DO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION
    • PRIVACY REQUEST
    • ACCESSIBILITY

Copyright ©2025. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing