WAR ON WASTE SAGE Automation and Container Deposit Systems Australia (CDSA) are finalists in two categories of the
Australasian 2018 Packaging & Processing Innovation & Design Awards for an innovative solution that promises to
fight the war on waste, is a premier example of the Internet of Things, and offers New Zealand food manufacturers
food for thought.
Container Deposit Systems Australia
60 MAY 2018
(CDSA) recently approached SAGE
Automation with an unusual challenge.
Recent environmental legislation has
seen many recycling plants facing the same problem
- reduced efficiencies and increased costs
– thanks to the purchase of an expensive sorting
machine from Europe, coupled with expensive
and unreliable labour. With the machine using
barcodes to sort, waste was of major concern,
as damaged products could not be read. NSW
Environmental Protection Authority’s ‘Return and
Earn’ scheme had come under fire for accepting
only ‘perfect rubbish’…empty, uncrushed, unbroken
and with the original label attached...so that
each container’s barcode could be scanned. All of
these factors had put a strain on their customer
satisfaction.
At the core of its business, CDSA looks to
optimise recycling facilities through decades of
experience, harnessing technology to improve
productivity within recycling depot facilities
where the manual handling of materials is still
prominent. “We position recycling facilities to
realise significant productivity gains, improved
customer relationships, and highly secure and
auditable product management,” CDSA executive
chairman Brett Duncanson says. “Priding
ourselves on customer satisfaction, the issues
that we were facing were hindering our business
and we were turning customers away rather than
make them want to take on the task of recycling
and collecting money.”
Understanding the issues that CDSA was facing,
SAGE Automation worked closely with automation
partners such as leading drive technology
supplier NORD DRIVESYSTEMS to improve
efficiencies through immaculate accuracy via
a prototype. SAGE Automation developed a
range of counting and sensing technologies to
accurately determine the container types being
retained - even when containers were not in their
original condition. What’s more, answering to
the calls for IoT technology, the system provides
valuable data which is delivered into the cloud
and used for reporting.
At the heart of the machine is the vision system
which was provided by UniSA. The camera uses
an algorithm to identify what each item is and
sorts them into the correct skid. This includes
not just identifying cans and bottles, but also
colour. Sage’s general manager of operations
Paul Johnson says that by providing customised,
innovative solutions, SAGE looked at developing
commercially viable solutions for OEMs. “The
challenge with CDSA’s request was that the plant
was already operational and customer required
that the solution be installed easily and very
quickly on-site. It also had to require minimal
maintenance and provide intelligence about the
facility operations. We looked for ways to simplify
the installation. Five skids with 26 conveyors
needed to be installed within a day so we looked
to a ‘plug and play’ solution to get it up and running
as fast as possible,” Duncanson says.
A distributed drive solution was used to achieve
the brief. It required a 240V drive which used
EtherCAT and could be Beckhoff integrated.
SAGE partnered with leading drive manufacturer
NORD DRIVESYSTEMS who were the only
provider who could deliver this unique solution.
“We hadn’t worked with NORD previously and
we were really impressed with the way that the
team listened to what we wanted. They understood
our needs and their engineering team
configured the unit to ensure seamless integration
with Beckhoff - literally overnight,” Johnson
says.
“The solution was exactly what we wanted and
the local stockholding, price point and engineering
expertise sealed the deal. The products used
were of the highest quality and latest technology.
The motor gearbox drive is distributed so that
inverter sits on top the gearbox and it is neatly
daisy chained together.” In the end SAGE Automation
was able to install 26 conveyors with five
skids in just one day.
With the second prototype underway and
recognising the formation of what hopes to be
a fruitful and strengthened partnership, NORD
DRIVESYSTEMS sales manager Vinod Pillai is
looking forward to more exciting projects with