Embedded Servo Drive Boosts Speed of Packaging Lines

Pfankuch Machinery, based in Ahrensburg, Germany, is a leading manufacturer of friction feeder systems for inserting leaflets and products into sales packaging. An embedded smart servo drive from Metronix (part of the Apex Tool Group in Sparks, MD) has allowed Pfankuch to increase the speed of its latest friction feeder — the SmartFeeder — by 50% while also doubling the positioning accuracy. This offers a massive gain in productivity for the many users of this type of packaging equipment in markets including pharmaceutical, and food and beverage processing. At the same time, the new embedded drive minimizes the hardware costs of the upgrade for Pfankuch, because the drive was adapted for the application, providing a stripped-down product suitable for OEM integration that eliminates numerous expensive components.