MBO has received an award for its Autonomous Production Line. This machine set-up includes optical fold quality monitoring and automatic signature change. Work that used to be performed by the operator is now automated. Human error is now a thing of the past and the operator can attend to other work or even operate two folding machines simultaneously. MBO won the European Digital Press Association (EDP) Award 2021 in the ‘Finishing’ category.
The EDP jury is made up of 21 trade journals from 27 European countries. The award stands for innovation and quality, as it is given out based on criteria such as degree of innovation, quality, costs and performance, and not on popularity. The EDP Commission press release states, ‘The logo of the EDP Awards stands for innovation and quality, offering orientation and providing a neutral recommendation for purchase decisions of users.’
‘That’s why we are all the more pleased to have won this international competition’, emphasised MBO Head of Research and Development Sebastian König. ‘The prize belongs to the entire MBO team. Every one of us has made a contribution, either directly or indirectly. We are very proud.’
The VT50 fold quality monitoring function is located directly behind the folding machine. Two cameras in the VT50 measure the folding tolerances of the folded sheets. These tolerances can be set by the customer to fit the specific job. Incorrectly folded sheets or sheets not within the tolerance range are ejected from the outlet of the VT50. This ensures that only perfectly folded sheets are transferred to the subsequent delivery system.
The MBO Autonomous Production Line includes the Autopilot, which enables fully automatic signature change. The Autopilot works with a camera at the palletised feeder and processes the information from the MBO Datamanager in combination with an MIS system. The camera reads a data code that was printed on the signature in advance. Each signature gets its own code. If the signature changes, production is briefly interrupted. The A80 delivery system is informed of the signature change by Autopilot and automatically places the new signature on a new pallet using the CoBo-Stack. This prevents mixing of the folded signatures and automatically saves the counter readings.
KOMORI
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