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| | Rockwell Automation & Qingzhou Ekofa Flexo Packing Machinery Company: Working together to set a new standard in flexographic printing
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| | Customer: | | Qingzhou Ekofa Flexo Packing Machinery Company, Ltd. |
| | Country: | | China |
| | Industry: | | OEM, Packaging, Printing / Publishing |
| | Services: | | None |
| | Products: | | Drives, I/O, Motors, Operator Interfaces, Programmable Controllers, Software |
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Rockwell Automation, a leading global provider of industrial automation, has partnered with Qingzhou Ekofa Flexo Packing Machinery Company, Ltd. and its channel partner Qingdao Evergreen Automation Company. Working together the three companies have jointly developed an 8-Color shaft- less Flexo Press, setting a new standard in flexographic printing.
Background:
Ekofa is dedicated to engineering high quality flexographic presses. Its EKOFA Series Flexo Presses are sold domestically throughout China. They have also been exported to many countries in Southeast Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Europe, South America, and the United States.
Challenge:
Customers are looking to print on a variety of substrates with shorter changeover time and for ease of operation at higher speeds. EKOFA’s Flexo Presses offer superior quality printing on various substrates such as cardboard, copper paper, self-adhesive, aluminum foil and non-stretch plastic films. The presses help meet customers’ high-end printing needs by eliminating the gear pitch during repeat printing, and offering multiple printing options in which the same press can print on different types of substrates. In addition, these presses provide a simple structure with easier operation and higher speed.
Customers are also looking for ways to maintain cleaner, safer and more energy efficient operations. The presses use non-hazardous water-based and UV inks and meet environmental regulations, making them especially suitable for packaging within the food and pharmaceutical industries.
Solutions
Recently EKOFA successfully developed an 8-color, wide shaft-less flexo press, with a printing width of up to 1250 mm based on the traditional shaft-driven printing press. The model has not only filled the current gap in wide shaft-less flexo presses domestically, it’s also made advance inroads on international markets.
The machine incorporates Rockwell Automation integrated motion control systems. And features such Rockwell Automation products as ControlLogix® Programmable Automation controllers, Kinetix® servo drives, 1326AB servo motors, a PanelView™ Plus touch screen HMI and several distributed I/O stations.
The process design uses the Rockwell Automation Power Programming methodology, a highly efficient modular programming tool. Using the new Add-On- Instruction functionality in RSLogix™ 5000 software, users can quickly complete the tuning of the machine and get it up and running.
Results:
Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture provides both the logic and motion control for the machine using one platform and one programming software. The integrated design helps meet the customer requirements for complete system control. It has also helped greatly reduced users’ training time, allowing them to quickly master the control system’s maintenance and control software technology.
Because each printing unit uses the same control logic, there’s no need to create separate programs for subsequent machines. The code of a properly-tuned printing unit can be used repeatedly, making it more convenient for users to upgrade their machines and keep re-using the same code.
This press is designed to function at a runtime speed of more than 200m/min with a printing registration tolerance of ±0.1mm.
Conclusion:
By working together, both Rockwell Automation and Ekofa are providing winning solutions for the flexographic printing industry.
“By combining advanced automation and motion control technologies from Rockwell Automation with EKOFA’s valuable experience in the flexo printing industry, EKOFA has achieved a major breakthrough in the development of shaft-less presses,” said Haifeng Wang, general manager, Qingzhou EKOFA Flexo Packing Machinery. “During the entire development process, the Rockwell Automation OEM team maintained great communications with EKOFA, resulting in smooth implementation. The company completed development of its first machine in a very short time.”
ControlLogix, Kinetix, PanelView, and RSLogix are trademarks of Rockwell Automation Inc.
Trademarks not belonging to Rockwell Automation are property of their respective companies.
EKOFA Video link:
http://mms.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/multi_media/documents/multimedia/ekofa.wmv
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