Fromm Packaging Automation sees connectivity benefits

>FROMM Group was founded in Switzerland in 1947. Born originally as a family business, the Group has steadily expanded and is now represented in more than 30 countries on all continents, employing a workforce of 1000 people.

>Currently, the Group produces pallet stabilization systems and supplies its customers with consumables for bundling and packing of goods.

>Fromm Group has five different sites located in Italy. FROMM Italiana Srl is the production centre for the whole group. Fromm Packaging Automation Srl manufactures automatic machines to order, whereas Fromm Stretch Wrapping Division builds standard wrapping machines. Italstrap Srl and Fromm Imballaggio Srl sell and provide assistance for standard equipment and consumables. Four sites are based in the region of Verona, in North-Eastern Italy, while Fromm Imballaggio is located in the region of Siena, Tuscany.

>Fromm Packaging Automation Srl designs, develops and produces a wide range of automatic and semi-automatic strapping machines. The company has also recently started manufacturing orbital wrapping machines, to wrap up pipes or profiles with stretch film. The machines produced by FROMM Packaging Automation are built completely to customer specifications, so that they can strap any kind of package and can be integrated into any variety of production lines according to industry sector and application.

>Safety and reliability are key attributes and of utmost importance during the planning phase. Machines are designed to bear a great workload yet maintenance and down time must be kept to a minimum. The selection of quality, well tested components from a trusted supplier is vital when considering future maintenance issues.

>FROMM Packaging Automation mounts Murrelektronik products on automatic strapping machines. Initially, the company employed the Exact12 passive distributors in preference to traditional junction boxes. This led to a significant time saving in the plant construction, specifically the optimization of the cabling process. Avoiding wiring errors and enabling faster production and I/O test times. The removal of the junction box eliminated both drilling times and all the other purely mechanical processes.

>When considering further optimization, Fromm Packaging Automation subsequently adopted the Cube67+ System (fieldbus) on more complex and higher performing machines. The size of the main control panel and the number of cables connecting the panel to the machine could be therefore reduced. Also the shipping of the machines become easier and more flexible, as dismantling and reassembling times could be significantly shortened.

>The use of Murrelektronik components brought the company many advantages and ultimately contributed greatly to cutting down global machine production costs: Sharp reduction of signal cabling in the electrical circuit, optimization of general resources in terms of startup thanks to shorter times of signal testing in the field, simpler and faster technical assistance to the end customer, thanks to the extended diagnostic feature.