Make2Pack Moves Forward

This transport system is designed as a working example that is complex enough to provide realistic proof of concepts yet still simple enough to be easily and practically built.

25/11/2006 Up for discussion at the November 16-17 Make2Pack meeting at Procter & Gamble's Brussels Innovation Center in Belgium will be a proposed PackML State Model version 3.0. This new state model has evolved from the original packaging machine version and is said to be much closer to the original S88.01 batch control equipment state model.

At another Make2Pack meeting, scheduled Dec. 6 at P&G's Central Engineering Technology Labs in West Chester, OH, there will be a demonstration of the Make2Pack Prototype Transport System.

The purpose of the transport system is to allow any FFS machine to make a request for material that will cause the transport system to have the Packing Tank dispense the requested amount of material into a transport tote and then have the filled tote be transported by the conveyor systems to the FFS machine that made the request. There the tote will be removed and emptied into the hopper of the FFS machine. The process will also be reversed and the tote will be returned to the Packing Tank for use by the next request.

This transport system is designed as a working example that is complex enough to provide realistic proof of concepts yet still simple enough to be easily and practically built. Says Make2Pack chair Dave Chappell, "The Make2Pack prototype has progressed to a point that we plan a demonstration of its functionality with those vendors who have successfully integrated their equipment into at least one part of the control strategy described in the prototype documentation. Make2Pack plans on sharing the success of this demonstration broadly."