Integrated safety increases bread making productivity by 20%

By improving operator access to safety and diagnostics information, Omron has helped Spanish bakery machine manufacturer Auxpama achieve a 20% improvement in productivity by avoiding unnecessary stops, whilst improving machine safety over EtherCAT.

A couple of years ago, when the Sysmac platform was introduced, Auxpama decided to take advantage by using the motion control platform to also control the safety functions. Production of the Sysmac Safety Integrated bread making machine started in early 2014, and it was a decision that not only gave Auxpama significant time and cost savings, but also gave those advantages to its end customers.

With Sysmac Safety, the function blocks are easily programmed saving development time: it is very intuitive and it is very easy to add new safety functions. Sysmac Safety significantly reduces costs because they use only Ethernet cable for the distributed installations, and EtherCAT communications as the easiest and quickest way to configure the machines.

Reduce programming by 30%

As with most machine builders, each machine required some customization so it could answer the customer needs exactly. The machines automate, on one production line, seven different bread making stages including stretching the dough, moulding it, and pre-proofing it before it goes into an oven. Before Sysmac, Auxpama’s safety control systems were separate from the motion control system and required separate PLCs that needed manual programming input.

“By adopting Sysmac’s unified control platform, programming the safety control system instantly became much faster, and the company estimates that it can now program its safety control functions up to 30% faster,” says David Garcia, Technical Manager at Auxpama, “we also save significant time by avoiding complex wiring, now the safety I/O s can perform all the safety functions.”

Integrated safety means fewer unnecessary stops

A touch panel showing both motion and safety control functions, lets the operator knows exactly what’s going, and an LED-illuminated operator and emergency stop buttons, ensure that when required, operator intervention is straightforward. By continuously displaying motion, safety, and diagnostic information on the HMI, unnecessary stops have been dramatically reduced and productivity has been optimized. For example, when the safeguards are closed, the reset LED in the push-button flashes on and off to inform the operator that a manual reset is necessary.

“An important diagnostic is knowing when any safety door is opened or if the emergency stop pushbutton is interlocked to reset it manually,” says David. “Thanks to Sysmac Safety, we can manage this diagnosis information easily and the operator is more confident. Also, we can program a general restart function of the line and one reset function per line. Before, we could do only local resets functions per line using safety modules which is not at all efficient for big lines like this one.”

Machine benefits

• Improved safety

• 30% fewer programming hours

• 20% more productivity – fewer unnecessary stops

• Better diagnostics for planned maintenance

• Less wiring

See Omron Sysmac safety introductory video

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