The concept, called WinP@ck, has been designed to give processors a competitive productive advantage through higher flexibility. This is achievable, says the company, because the unit can be used both in complete production systems and with standalone machines.
The development comes at a time when processors are increasingly looking to make cost savings at every point of the supply chain, something that Roger Graf, Buhler project manager of bakery and mill plant automation, is keenly aware of.
"It is very easy to change, and very easy to understand all the functions," he told FoodProductionDaily.com.
"And there is also manual mode as well to allow for visualisation. If something is wrong with the motor, you can find out pretty quickly. This makes maintenance much easier."
The new, unified control system has been designed for bagging equipment with flour grain processing in mind, but can be tailored to the needs of customers. This is largely because of the modular nature of the system.
"The system can control production from packing bin to the end of the last belt on the closing station," said Graf. "Everything is linked with ProfiBus."
And by enabling plant managers to run both Buhler bagging units as well as stand-alone machines, it allows firms to respond quickly to changes in the marketplace. The system is fully automated and clear to use.
It is here, says Graf that crucial competitive advantages can be gained. He claims that users can process jobs, manage recipes and make settings quickly and easily on the newly designed operator terminal.
In addition, messages are displayed so that the section of plant where occurrences take place can be accurately pinpointed. This makes it easier to find solutions.
And ultimately, the entire system can be operated from a centralised location through the operator terminal, which is controlled by a compact industry PC with integrated PLC (programmable logic controller) software.
According to Buhler, a crucial advantage of the PLC is that it canbe tailored to the needs of various applications. Switching over to other products or weights on a given system is possible at the push of a button.
The WinP@ck system also offers plant managers data security because important configuration and recipe data is continuously saved to the storage multi-media card (MMC).