In 2010, the total annual output value of China's packaging industry exceeded 1 trillion yuan, becoming the 14th pillar industry among the 40 major industrial categories in the national economy. It is expected that the total output value of China's food and packaging machinery industry is expected to exceed 600 billion yuan from 2011 to 2015, with an average annual growth rate of about 16%. At present, the competition for food packaging machinery is becoming increasingly fierce. In the future, food packaging machinery will cooperate with industrial automation to promote the overall level of packaging equipment and develop multi-functional, high-efficiency, and low-cost food packaging equipment. This industry has also put forward new requirements for automation:
(1) Flexible production: Currently, major enterprises are adapting to the fierce competition in the market, and the cycle of product updates is becoming shorter and shorter. So there are high requirements for the flexibility and flexibility of packaging machinery, that is, the lifespan of packaging machinery should be much longer than the lifespan of the product.
(2) Manufacturing execution system: Integration technology has developed rapidly in the packaging and printing industry. There are many types of packaging and printing machinery and equipment, which poses great challenges to the interface connection between different manufacturers' products, the transmission between equipment and industrial control computers, and the transmission of information between equipment. In this case, packaging and printing enterprises turn to Manufacturing execution system (MES) for solutions.
(3) Motion control technology: The main function of motion control products and technologies in packaging machinery is to achieve precise position control and strict speed synchronization requirements. Especially the electronic cam (E-CAM) has become an essential feature of the packaging and printing industry controller.
(4) Packaging and printing machinery is moving towards automation, high efficiency, and energy conservation. Microelectronics, computers, industrial robots, intelligent, image sensing technology, and new materials are increasingly being applied in packaging and printing machinery.
(5) With the increase in raw material, production, and labor costs, as well as increasingly fierce market competition, high-speed and high-precision have become the primary standards for industry equipment. High response, high-performance, and low-cost automation products are increasingly favored by industry customers.
(6) With the popularization of the Internet, the construction of cloud infrastructure, and the significant improvement of performance, digital printing will dominate. Digital inkjet printing technology has been recognized as the future development direction of the printing industry due to its high industrial production efficiency, wide media adaptability, wide format support, and on-demand green advantages, thus becoming one of the focuses of competition among major manufacturers.