At booth #LS-5970, visitors will receive a personalized sample product tin with candy assembled through the cooperation between humans and machines – right in front of their eyes!

PACK EXPO 2019 - Omron

PACK EXPO Q&A with | Omron Automation

Tell us about your company

Omron Automation is an industrial automation partner that creates, sells and services fully integrated automation solutions that include sensing, control, safety, vision, motion, robotics and more. Established in 1933 and currently headed by President Yoshihito Yamada, Omron’s 36,000 employees help businesses solve problems with creativity in more than 110 countries.

 

Your company will be exhibiting at PACK Expo, what is it that makes this an important event for your company?

PackExpo brings together over 50,000 packaging professionals from the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, beauty, personal care and household industries. This is a great venue for Omron to invite visitors into an interactive world of near-future manufacturing; showcasing the world’s most powerful packaging technologies – robotics, vision and more.

 

What makes your booth a must visit for PACK Expo Attendees?

At booth #LS-5970, visitors will receive a personalized sample product tin with candy assembled through the cooperation between humans and machines – right in front of their eyes! Omron’s solutions promote harmony on the factory floor through improvements in safety, speed and efficiency driven by AI programs that learn from workers on a daily basis. Humans can safely interact with our collaborative and mobile robots, which are designed to adapt to workers’ needs.

Are you feeling lucky in Las Vegas? This year, PMMI is introducing a new robotics-focused area dubbed the Robot Zone. In booth #N-850, visitors will have the opportunity to play dice with an Omron TM series collaborative robot. Meet our Greeter LD mobile robot at the entrance to the Robot Zone and get a personal tour of the area filled with robotic technologies designed to boost the productivity of packaging lines.

 

PACK Expo has many educational sessions, forums & Demo’s, is your company involved in any of them this year?  (Feel free to include in Booth Demo’s)

Mike Chen, Director - Automation Center Americas, will deliver a presentation on the future of automation and robotics in packaging in the Robot Zone.

 

When you get a chance to walk the exhibit hall floor yourself, what is it you will be most interested to see?  Any educational sessions, pavilions, etc. you plan on attending? 

One of the most interesting events this year will be the ‘Future Innovators Robotics Showcase,’ which will feature local high-school robotic teams displaying innovations they have built and designed themselves. It will be interesting to see their unique creations and how they may impact manufacturing of the future. The Innovation Stage is also a great venue to hear about a variety of topics and trends affecting the industry now and what will become in the future. The venue provides the opportunity to learn about what other industry professionals are experiencing; everything from how packaging companies are utilizing OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) to what the factory of the future looks like.

 

The factory floor is undertaking rapid advancements, be it automation, robotics, machine vision or data.  Automation Technology is a huge part for many manufacturers, give us an idea on how your company and product is being utilized now in the smart factory.

Robotic and other advanced control solutions are rapidly gaining traction in the packaging industry and Omron is demoing several innovative solutions to illustrate product utilization in a smart factory. Stop by booth #LS-5970 to see our advanced pick-and-place demo that combines robots, a high-speed FH-5050 vision system, a MicroHAWK MV-40 smart camera, a control system featuring the NX102 machine automation controller, NX series safety control as well as PackML to easily integrate all processes – because automation right now is about creating an environment where humans and machines can collaborate to provide the utmost in productivity, quality and safety. . Other key demos include a laser marking station where vision technology, the NY IPC and the powerful InduSoft platform work together for traceability and inspection which is critical to protecting the integrity of a brand.

 

Give us your thoughts on what the future holds for manufacturers and automation technology.

Automation has the ability to increase throughput and reliability, improve quality as well as heighten other performance gains. It will enable scalability for large packaging companies that are instantly able to promote the adoption of new technologies and implement retraining and skill-raising programs for human workers. For mid- to small-sized packaging companies, the impact of automation will change the competitive landscape. These companies will be able to undertake projects now primarily carried out by larger companies, enabling companies to enter new markets outside of their previous core product lines. 

The bottom line: automation is already here and adoption will continue to grow with increasing market demands and advancements in technology. Packaging companies, regardless of size and level of readiness, can implement automation solutions for a wide-range of applications today… and prepare to capture the opportunities offered by the automation of tomorrow.

 

The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of ManufacturingTomorrow

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