In the last decade the packaging industry has profoundly altered. External market forces have projected robotics and automation into mainstream manufacturing, with labour efficiency and productivity, implicit in Pacepacker Services earlier work, continuing to be a key driver. The automation specialist’s Commercial & Information Systems Manager, Paul Wilkinson looks back on recent packaging developments and shares his predictions for the next decade.
With technology advances and industry innovations, robotics and automation have become more commonplace among small and medium-sized manufacturers, and this is enabling them to compete in broader markets. Industry experts attribute this boom to three key factors – factory modernisation, increases in production capacity, and rising demand from a number of emerging markets.
Over recent years, innovative packaging machine designs incorporating mechatronic solutions have inspired a culture of packaging machinery builders to combine functions once considered the domain of standalone systems. Now, robotics can be integrated and bespoke automated solutions developed to accommodate package designs and product mix in ways unachievable a generation ago.
