Posted to News on 29th Feb 2008, 09:35
PacDrive automation benefits from Weihenstephan standard
ELAU is implementing the Weihenstephan standard in the software libraries of its PacDrive automation system. This standard is increasingly establishing itself in the field of beverage bottling systems and provides a communications standard for interfacing with higher-level systems.
The Weihenstephan standard for production data acquisition in bottling plants is said to represent the first viable model for communication between production machinery and data acquisition systems. At the Technischen Universitt Mnchen (TUM, Munich Technical University) located in Weihenstephan, the Chair for Food Packaging Technology has developed these guidelines as a response to the beverage industry's increasing demand for comprehensive yet simple and inexpensive data acquisition from bottling machinery. Not only are these guidelines now established in the beverage industry, but they are also catching the food industry's attention.
ELAU has already implemented the Weihenstephan standard in the software libraries of its PacDrive automation system. The physical interface specification defined in part 1 of the standard is relevant to the communication between machine controls and data acquisition systems such as MES. The appropriate functionalities and tasks required for communication via this interface are implemented in the PacDrive libraries.
After developing a template for standardised machine programming and implementation of the OMAC packaging guidelines, ELAU's adoption of the Weihenstephan standard represents another way to simplify the engineering required to develop today's increasingly sophisticated systems. Packaging and bottling machines automated with PacDrive inherently meet the requirements defined in the Weihenstephan standard for connecting to data acquisition systems. PacDrive system is therefore suitable for new machines and retrofitting older machines to secure a PDA connection compliant with this standard.
