Österbergs Förpackningsmaskiner AB is a Swedish machine builder, designing packaging machines for their owners Stora Enso and Peterson Packaging. Their machines are used for packaging foodstuffs and preparing them for transport to millions of Scandinavians every day.

Österberg’s packaging machines usually don’t handle the packaging of the actual food itself, but rather the wrapping needed for transportation. The machines fold and glue the wrapping cardboard and insert milk cartons, boxes, packages or whatever it is that needs packaging before transport.

As with all advanced machines, a lot of communication is needed – both inside the machine but also to other internal and external systems. For this, Österbergs has found several communication solutions from HMS Industrial Networks.

Enabling communication inside the machine

One very useful communication solution is the Anybus Communicator which allows devices communicating via serial or CAN to be connected to any PLC system. The Communicator enables different parts of the machine to communicate.

“The Anybus Communicator has enabled us to keep well-working equipment that is proven and that we know well,” says Joakim Chyssler at Österbergs.

“We may change control system several times during our development phase, but still keep machine parts that are proven and tested (for example conveyor belts, sensors, HMIs etc). This is very important for spare parts management which is crucial for us and our customers.”  

No hardware or software changes are required for the connected devices since all protocol conversion is made to the network from inside the Anybus Communicator.

The Anybus Communicator in action, enabling communication between serial devices inside the machine and the control system (Ethernet/IP-based in this case).

Choosing the best devices, regardless of protocol

“The Anybus Communicator allows us to choose freely which devices to include in our machines,” says Joakim Chyssler. “We don’t have to worry about which communication standard the devices use, the Communicator will enable them to communicate with our PLC anyway. Furthermore, we can now choose different PLCs to suit a specific packaging machine since the Anybus Communicator handles most network standards on the market.”

Remote access with eWON Cosy

But HMS communication solutions also allow Österbergs to connect to their machines remotely, using the eWON Cosy remote router. By connecting a Cosy to the packaging machine, service staff can log in via a cloud-based service called Talk2M. Through this, it is possible to establish a remote connection to do PLC programming, maintenance and debugging, just as if connected on site.

“Remote access is really a must-have for us since we don’t have field service technicians of our own,” says Joakim Chyssler. “With eWON Cosy we can log on from the office to do maintenance and support on our packaging machines saving us a lot of time and travelling costs.”

Wireless being evaluated

Another new technology from HMS that Österbergs is currently evaluating is industrial wireless. By attaching an Anybus Wireless Bolt to their machine, it is possible to access it via Bluetooth or WLAN. For example, to use a tablet or smartphone as an HMI to operate the machine. 

“This is interesting technology, that can really be useful for us as a machine builder and we are currently looking into this for future machines,” says Joakim Chyssler.