XPlanar reduces set-up times for cosmetics filling by a third

Space constraints in production environments, leaving no room for traditional system concepts, call for creativity and PC-based control. Along these lines, Pro Pharma Automation and Glanzer cosmetic engineering have created an innovative filling system with XPlanar and TwinCAT – a solution which, according to Managing Director Sigrid Glanzer, is going to set a benchmark in filling and designing multi-component cosmetics.

Glanzer cosmetic engineering has been producing cosmetic products for international brands and retailers for over 90 years. Around 100 employees develop, produce, dispense, and package high-viscosity oils, emulsions, creams, and liquids on a total of ten lines. “As the leading contract manufacturer in Austria, we offer a full service in the cosmetics sector, from product development and production according to product specifications to filling and packaging,” says Managing Director Sigrid Glanzer. The challenges that the company faces lie in increasingly shorter product life cycles and, in some cases, highly dynamic variations in production batches. It also has to cater to trends such as multi-phase filling and customized patterns in jars. “Things get pretty creative in cosmetics,” confirms Walter Steinauer, Plant Manager and co-owner of the company, which is certified to the IFS HPC and GMP for cosmetics standards.

To meet the requirements of an increasingly dynamic market, a new filling and capping system was designed together with machine builder Pro Pharma Automation in Elsbach, Austria, which specializes in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. The biggest priority in the project was achieving flexibility in jar sizes, process flows, and product ranges, which demanded a completely new approach to the production line. For Pro Pharma, things were complicated further by the limited space provided by the existing production line for high-end cosmetics, an area subject to strict hygiene requirements. “We’re talking about a footprint of about 3 x 1.8 m – barely a line, really,” says Christian Haslmair, Managing Director of Pro Pharma Automation, outlining the concept.

XPlanar – a compact, scalable solution

The filling system is based on the XPlanar planar motor system from Beckhoff. “Where the system really stands out is that it maximizes the space available and has a customizable layout,” states Walter Steinauer. This means that it can accommodate much more stations within a smaller area than systems with conventional conveyor belts can. In addition, the XPlanar movers support an entirely free process flow decoupled from the mechanical design. Thus, depending on product specifications, individual stations in the process can be omitted or run through several times. Systems with XPlanar can also be scaled to almost any size by parallelizing individual stations and adding more movers. “The current layout with 20 XPlanar tiles and 16 movers is designed for around 30 units per minute,” says Christian Haslmair.

A total of 13 process stations and three robots were accommodated in a very confined space. The first robot takes the jars from the infeed and places them on the XPlanar mover in the transfer area using special brackets, which secure the jars in exactly the right place. The brackets are also automatically released before the robot inserts the jars. The next step is the extraction or blow-out station, which ensures that there are no particles or cardboard residue in the jars. Next is the filling process: Glanzer has the option of filling the jars with two components at the same time or just one. When it comes to product dispensing, Pro Pharma relies on servo-controlled auger fillers instead of piston fillers, traditionally a popular choice. “They allow us to dispense highly viscous liquids and water-based emulsions, and withdraw or add more if necessary,” says Christian Haslmair.

Mover rotation and precision generate USP

As Glanzer cosmetic engineering intends to add small flacons to the containers it fills in the future, it relies on precision. “We need a positioning accuracy of 0.1 mm,” says Walter Steinauer. “XPlanar boasts far more precision, thanks to its position resolution of 1 µm and typical repeatability of 5 µm,” says David Kittl, who works in sales at Beckhoff Austria, explaining another function that the solution provides. For products with two components, the mover can rotate the jar in sync with the dispensing process. “This results in a beautiful spiral pattern in the different components, something that gives our customers an opportunity for product differentiation and catches the consumer’s eye at the point of sale,” says Sigrid Glanzer of this attractive system feature. “PC-based control and XPlanar certainly don’t place any restrictions in the way of creativity in the cosmetics industry,” confirms David Kittl.

After filling, the next stage is a sealing and closing station involving a second robot and its special gripper mechanism. The brackets and precise positioning of the movers are crucial in this process. “If the jars are not exactly centered, the robot cannot position the lid correctly, which makes screwing it into place properly almost impossible. There isn’t much room for error here,” says Walter Steinauer. Finally, the movers proceed to the third robot, which places the filled jars on a conveyor belt for final inspection.

Everything under control with TwinCAT 3

TwinCAT 3 XPlanar (TF5890) coordinates all movements. “Even though there are several movers in a very confined space, the system’s integrated track management and collision avoidance features stop them from bumping into each other,” states David Kittl. Christian Haslmair relies on TwinCAT 3 PLC/NC PTP (TC1250), the AX8000 multi-axis servo system, and AM8000 synchronous servomotors to control process stations and drive axes, and to coordinate the robots. All these processes are carried out on a C6670 control cabinet industrial server, which also handles visualization and data acquisition during all production steps.

In the cosmetics and pharmaceuticals sector, it is important that process control and documentation comply with ISO 13485 requirements. This is why every APM4330 mover has an XPlanar ID bumper, which is used to read out the mover’s individual serial number at all stations. With this information, each jar’s journey through the system can be logged and documented if required – even after a power supply failure. In addition, there is no homing required at system startup if programming has been carried out accordingly.

Alongside operating smoothly, the system has to be easy to clean. This is where the XPlanar system offers clear advantages over other systems: the XPlanar tiles are mounted on an aluminum plate and covered with FDA-certified film without restricting functionality or accuracy. Pro Pharma has developed an intriguing solution for maintaining the specified processing temperatures for the cosmetics in the closed system. “We have installed a water cooling system on the underside of the work surface on the XPlanar electronics to keep the temperature in the system low,” says Christian Haslmair. Cooling surfaces of different sizes are used to accommodate different tile sizes.

Small batches, short set-up times

With batches becoming increasingly smaller, set-up time is becoming a key factor in efficiency considerations. “If the next batch needs to be processed or a different jar size needs to be filled in three hours’ time, we can’t have a changeover process that takes half a day,” summarizes Walter Steinauer. The two transfer stations make sure this is not the case – as does the largely automated product changeover process, which is initiated by the customer-specific CP3921 stainless steel multi-touch Control Panel and TwinCAT HMI. “It’s still too early for exact figures, but we expect set-up time to drop by a third compared to our existing lines,” states Walter Steinauer. Sigrid Glanzer is certain that the investment will pay off: “Our sales department is practically snatching the samples out of my hand so it can get them to our customers!”