Floating Capper - The high-performance capping machine

As many as 13 different motors from different manufacturers, controlled by a compact PLC and centrally controlled via a single control panel? Sounds unbelievable – but it’s reality for this current project from Berghof Automation and Control Solutions. Non-proprietary systems and open CODESYS standard are the magic words.

The name speaks for itself: Scandinavian Drive Technologies (SDT) has made a very good name for itself throughout Scandinavia as a specialist in the automation of machines and plants, with the eloquent motto “We make automation simple”. Motion applications with servo drives are SDT’s specialty.

SDT and Berghof: Congenial partners

One of SDT’s most important technology partners has for many years been Berghof Automation and Control Solutions, a pioneer in the field of industrial automation and currently the talk of the town thanks to its new Raspberry-based systems which are suitable for industrial use. There is a simple reason behind this close partnership: “My customers want maximum performance with minimum space requirements. They don’t want the technological constraints of a proprietary solution. Thanks to Berghof, I can provide them with exactly what they are looking for,” says Lars Radler, Managing Director of SDT, explaining why he has consistently relied on Berghof for many years when it comes to controllers and operator panels.

The “Floating Capper” automatic filling machine is just one example of the benefits that this congenial combination is providing plant engineers. Made by the Swedish company TREPAK, market leader for filling systems for liquid products in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, the “Floating Capper” is setting new standards in its field.

Not only faster, but also more precise

because the “Floating Capper” seals the bottles without the conveyor having to stop as with conventional systems. An innovative feature that offers two advantages at the same time: Firstly, the particularly high output of 90 closures per minute – and secondly, the significantly minimized risk of spillage and the resulting soiling of the containers.

To ensure that everything is in flux during the “Floating Capper”, no less than 13(!) servo motors from different manufacturers are used. Nevertheless, together, SDK and Berghof have managed to control this varied, technically complex mixture with just one controller, the compact powerhouse Berghof B-FORTIS CC-Prime, based on “EtherCat”.

The system also gets by with having only one control panel – the Berghof B-PRIMIS ET-Pro 15.6“ with resistive touch panel. “A proprietary solution, which many providers still advocate, was of course ruled out here from the outset. On the other hand, we were able to score with the classic Berghof strengths of high flexibility and rich performance,” recalls Lars Radler.

This project shows once again: that the topic of high flexibility is becoming increasingly important, especially in the field of industrial automation. Anyone who opts for a new controller or a new industrial IPC today also has to think about the openness of the chosen solution for future concepts in order to avoid blocking the path for further development unnecessarily and getting annoyed about such a technological dead end at a later point.

One important feature of Berghof is therefore proving to be a major advantage, not only from the point of view of SDT and Trepak: Berghof has always deliberately refrained from using proprietary solutions and consistently uses the open standard from CODESYS. In addition, Berghof PLCs use Linux with real-time extension as their operating system, which means that different software modules can be easily combined and processed in a deterministic way.

So at Berghof, everything is in flux, not only for this project but for everything else.