Case By Case: Recent Episodes
Schneider Packaging Equipment
The date: September 27-19, 2021. The place: Las Vegas Convention Center. The event: Pack Expo 2021. The world’s most comprehensive packaging processing event of the year is almost here, and Mike Brewster, VP of Sales and Marketing for Schneider Packaging, was most definitely excited about it. He filled Case by Case’s Courtney Echerd in on what people can expect.
Pack Expo is the premier event for the packing industry, and with the pandemic, Brewster pointed out that there was no opportunity to hold an in-person event in 2020.
“It (Pack Expo) allows OEM’s like Schneider to connect to thousands of qualified partners in one setting over the span of a few days,” Brewster said. “And on the flip side, it allows attendees to see the latest and greatest regarding solutions for our industry and also a time for them to get an understanding of where their business is and where they want to take it.”
Brewster acknowledged the growth in virtual expos over the past year, and while those had advantages when people could not travel, there is nothing quite the same as a live, in-person event. “Those intimate small setting groups in person, you really can’t replicate in a virtual setting,” Brewster said.
Brewster told Echerd people attending Pack Expo should aim to fulfill two goals: meet new contacts, and take back helpful information and further directions they can share with their organizations to make them better.
Historically, there's been a careful balance between automation and human labor in the workforce. Automation has the potential to vault productivity forward, but it also has the potential to eliminate jobs. With packaging automation, companies have to walk a very delicate line in bringing new automation to eliminate the truly demanding jobs.
IO Link industrial communication technology is growing rapidly as a point-to-point communication system for delivering device data. Host Hilary Kennedy welcomed guest Tim Graham, Product Manager at Schneider Packaging Equipment, to discuss how this technology is changing industries and bringing greater efficiency to operations.
Before taking on his role as product manager, Graham worked for several years as a controls engineer specializing in robotic solutions and machine design. He has the technical knowledge that comes with experience and all the details on where this technology is headed in the future.
“The big piece everyone has seen the benefit from immediately is controlling your data,” Graham said. IO Link can incorporate existing sensors and improve the capabilities and performance of those systems.
The flexibility in changing settings and configurations makes this technology ideal for facilities that need to adjust operations in response to changing data.
Over the last few years, IO Link has become standardized across the U.S., leading to greater adoption as industries begin to understand all the capabilities and possibilities of the technology.
IO Link is ushering in new advances in IIOT (industrial Internet of Things), where the amount of data coming out of sensors creates a more robust operation. However, having more data is not without challenges.
“Everybody thinks more data is better, but, at the end of the day, it has the downside of trying to figure out which data to capture when, as well as what to do with it once you have it,” Graham said.
This flexibility of data gives customers an opportunity to customize and implement solutions that best suit their needs.