1. Packaging industry development overview

Packaging machinery refers to the machinery that can complete all or part of the packaging process of products and commodities. Packaging process includes filling, wrapping, sealing and other main processes, as well as its related before and after processes, such as cleaning, stacking and dismantling. In addition, packaging also includes measuring or stamping on the package and other processes.

China's packaging industry is relatively backward in developed countries such as Japan and the United States, and has very large development potential. In 2005, China produced a total of 93,000 packaging machinery, with an output value of 55 billion yuan, a small decline compared with 2004. According to the statistics of the Food and packaging Machinery Industry Association, China currently has more than 3,600 packaging machinery manufacturers, but the output value and sales of more than 100 million yuan now only 20.

Domestic packaging machinery enterprises mainly produce relatively simple equipment, equipment mainly relies on imports, only a few domestic enterprises can provide complete sets of production lines.

2. The use of automation products in the packaging industry

1.) General situation
The automation products used in packaging machinery mainly include control systems, transmission control, motion control, human-machine interface and sensors, which include:
Control system: embedded products, PLC, IPC, fieldbus; Transmission control: inverter, DC speed regulation; Motion control: servo, stepper, motion controller;
Man-machine interface: text display, touch screen, tablet computer electrical components and sensors: photoelectric switch, temperature sensor, pressure sensor, stroke switch, etc

2.) Introduction of main automation products

i.) Controller
The use of controllers in food and packaging machinery is very different, large production lines use fieldbus technology, control points as many as thousands, most of the single machine uses PLC or special controller, some low-end equipment uses relay control, and more small equipment does not use any electronic controller, In general, only about 10% of domestic packaging machinery uses advanced controllers.
IPC has strong scalability in terms of performance, and rich software resources enable it to develop more applications, which are mainly used for the management and communication of large equipment. The PLC system will still be the mainstream controller of packaging machinery within 5 years; Relays, as the previous mainstream controllers, will continue to continue in the low-end market, despite the decline in the market, but in 3 years will not be eliminated in the packaging industry.
According to the survey of China Industrial control network, in 2005, China's packaging machinery controller market was 300 million yuan, of which the PLC market was less than 200 million yuan.

The use of transmission products in packaging machinery is mainly to adjust the main process speed and control the periodic changes in the speed of the motor in the production process. For most packaging machinery, the frequency converter is not a necessary electrical product. Although more and more packaging machinery manufacturers have designed transmission schemes based on frequency converters, there are few users. Therefore, unless in the use of frequency converters, packaging machinery manufacturers less consider using frequency converters. The frequency converter has a low utilization rate in the industry, and has a large space for development in large standard gauge machines and packaging production lines. According to the survey of China Industrial control network, in 2005, the transmission market of China's packaging machinery industry was about 200 million yuan, mainly small frequency converter products with power below 7.5KW.

iii.) Motion control
The application of motion control products in the packaging machine is mainly to achieve accurate position control and strict speed synchronization, for loading and unloading, conveying, marking, palletizing, unloading and other processes.

Packaging machinery that may use motion control products in this industry mainly includes: Carton production line, automatic packaging machine, vacuum filling packaging machine, plastic laminating machine, composite flexible packaging machine, liquid packaging machine, packaging robot, unmanned packaging production equipment, packing/bottling equipment, cleaning, drying equipment, molding, filling equipment, sealing, capping equipment, weighing, packaging equipment, aseptic packaging equipment.

Motion control products have developed rapidly in the packaging machinery industry in the past 3 years, according to the survey of China Industrial control network, the motion control market of the industry in 2005 was close to 150 million yuan, of which the servo market was slightly more than 100 million yuan.

Due to the rapid development of China's packaging industry, more packaging machinery will be needed in the country, and motion control products will also gain greater space for development in the industry.

iv.) HMI of human-machine interface packaging machinery is based on text display, which is usually used in conjunction with PLC or single-chip microcomputer to set production process parameters, monitor equipment operating status, and record equipment production history. A few machines use touch screens.