ILS Brochure - 11737 Electronic line shafting has been the key to fl exibility in packaging machines

Electronic Line Shafting – ELS – has long enabled packaging machinery performance by replacing mechanical line shafts. ELS synchronizes multiple servo axes over a motion network with a real or virtual master axis. The machine’s motion control software transforms the position values for each axis module into cam parameters for the drives. ELS achieves near push-button changeovers by uploading new sets of parameters or even com- plete cams. But conventional ELS is not without limitations because the maximum machine speed is based on the axis with the highest load or criti- cal parameter: 1. Increasing the virtual master’s velocity reduces the cycle times – motor speeds, accelerations and decelerations – for all axes equally. Therefore, performance is limited to the ‘weakest link’ in the system.2. If critical motion profi les during a machine cycle cause increased mechanical wear and tear, motor overloads or an impact on packaging qual- ity, often the only workaround is to reduce cycle rates and machine throughput.

With ELS, the ‘weakest link’ effectively limits machine speed – even if the remaining axes have power to spare.