Rockwell Automation leverages intelligent machine solutions to help Yichao packaging achieve equipment intelligence upgrades and successfully enter overseas markets.

**Challenge**

Foshan Yichao Packaging Machinery Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yichao Packaging"), a company that has been deeply cultivating in the packaging machinery industry for many years, is a "wave rider" aspiring to expand overseas. In the process of exploring overseas markets, Yichao Packaging keenly observed that most automation solutions for equipment in the current industry cannot meet the high requirements for equipment export, necessitating the selection of more suitable solutions to enhance competitiveness in the ODM field.

For example, traditional equipment must be shut down first to change packaging speed during production. However, facing intensified market competition, Yichao Packaging proposed the need for real-time dynamic adjustment of production speed during production to adapt to upstream and downstream equipment, while simultaneously needing to integrate with weighing systems for packaged materials in upstream equipment. These continuously escalating demands are increasingly testing Yichao Packaging's innovation capabilities, making intelligent upgrades of existing packaging machinery imperative.

**Solution**

Facing these challenges, Yichao Packaging partnered with Rockwell Automation to jointly embark on a technology upgrade journey centered on intelligent machine solutions. After in-depth consultation and "diagnosis" of customer needs, Rockwell Automation helped Yichao Packaging identify the main directions for equipment upgrades.

Currently, equipment tailored to customer needs possesses intelligent machine characteristics. Beyond improving equipment operating indicators and enhancing equipment stability, it should also have UL safety certification to meet ODM requirements.

To implement this intelligent upgrade, Rockwell Automation implemented an intelligent machine solution for this export project featuring "Micro850® Programmable Logic Controller, Kinetix® 5100 Servo Drive, and Kinetix® TLP Multi-function Servo Motor."

On one hand, the complete equipment adopted a single network connection using standard Ethernet (EtherNET/IP), creating a data "highway" for digital transformation. On the other hand, the servo drive includes STO (Safety Torque Off) safety torque shutdown functionality, enhancing equipment safety. Additionally, the solution can utilize electronic cam curve dynamic speed switching, successfully achieving on-demand switching of real-time packaging speeds.

Meanwhile, to ensure equipment meets export requirements, not only do all components in the solution have UL certification, but the system also ensures adoption of intelligent machine system architecture and related international standards for software and hardware, such as program framework ISA 88 [PackML], alarm management ISA 18, HMI color scheme ISA 101, etc., to ensure equipment meets overseas usage requirements.

During project development, equipment installation and program writing with simulation debugging proceeded simultaneously. Before equipment installation was completed, program writing and virtual simulation debugging were already finished, greatly saving equipment debugging and delivery time. When problems arose during debugging, Rockwell Automation immediately mobilized resources across multiple departments for rapid response, enabling customers to complete prototype development and testing ahead of schedule and successfully participate in Italian exhibitions on time, allowing overseas users to get a "preview."

**Results**

Rockwell Automation's intelligent machine solutions and technical support fully demonstrated the value of lean value streams and automation deepening in Yichao Packaging's newly created intelligent equipment.

First, equipment performance improved significantly, with packaging speed increasing from 150 packages/minute to 200 packages/minute, representing a 33% speed improvement. Color mark cutting precision achieved a breakthrough of ±1mm, realizing 100% improvement. The equipment can also achieve continuous 24/7 fault-free operation.

Second, the equipment created differentiated advantages through flexibility improvements, enabling real-time dynamic adjustment of packaging speed based on upstream and downstream equipment operating speeds, and convenient integration with weighing systems, effectively enhancing flexible and efficient production across the entire line.

Additionally, innovative simulation debugging modes significantly shortened equipment installation and debugging time for customers, ensuring more reliable equipment delivery timeliness.

This combination of comprehensive factors successfully helped Yichao Packaging secure overseas customer orders and achieve successful delivery at end-user actual production sites. More encouragingly, successful implementation of this project further expanded Yichao Packaging's business vision, bringing potential business opportunities in production line informatization, equipment cluster intelligent maintenance, and digital twin system implementation in packaging machinery, marking an extension from single equipment upgrades to full industrial chain value excavation.

Rockwell Automation, driven by technological innovation, helped Yichao Packaging achieve a leap from "traditional machinery" to "intelligent machines." This cooperation case not only established a benchmark for efficient and flexible production in the packaging industry but also demonstrated the core value of intelligent automation solutions in enhancing enterprise international competitiveness.

**About Rockwell Automation**

Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK) is one of the world's leading companies in industrial automation, informatization, and digital transformation. We fully leverage human imagination and technological potential to create more possibilities for humanity, making the world more productive and sustainable. Rockwell Automation is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. As of the end of fiscal year 2024, it has approximately 27,000 employees with business operations spanning over 100 countries and regions. To learn more about how Rockwell Automation helps industrial enterprises realize connected enterprises, visit www.rockwellautomation.com.