Designing of bottle washing machine in virtual environment using the enhanced mechatronics system design methodology

Abstract

Primary packaging signifies the part of packaging layer where the container is in immediate contact with the product. Primary packaging system involves both the product itself and also any secondary layers of packaging that might be needed. Since primary package is in immediate contact with the main product, this layer of packaging requires special attention in the area of accurate quantity of product, sanitation, labeling etc. On the other hand, secondary packaging is the process of combining the primary packages into one single container which is used to transport the products from one place to another. Most of the time in manufacturing circumstances, secondary packaged products are not quite available for customer whereas the primary packaged one are mostly consumed by the ultimate customers. Sanitized bottles filled with drinkable liquid or solutions are very good example of one of these kinds of products. In most of the primary packaging industries, bottle washing (rinsing) machines are one of the most widely used technologies which is developed for efficient washing, sanitizing and drying of bottles before they are ready to be filled with liquid product or solution. Currently, there are some automatic bottle washing machines available in the packaging industries. Generally these machines are designed and manufactured from practical experiences of conventional machine designer. This design and development process often requires longer time and higher cost of fabrication. The simultaneous mechatronics system design methodology can serve the better opportunity to overcome these difficulties. Mechatronics is the synergistic integration of mechanical and electrical engineering, computer science and information technology that comprises control system, in addition to mathematical analysis which is used to design products incorporated with intelligence. The modern mechatronics system design is based on concurrent approach to design products with more synergy whereas the conventional design and development process uses a sequential approach to design and development. In enhanced mechatronics system design methodology, the first step of designing a machine starts at modeling and simulation followed by emulation of the machine. The term emulation of a system refers to the fact that the system will act as similar as a real system without the hardware. It will also enable us to test and debug a system in a virtual environment. Products that are manufactured through this process are more reliable, robust, and provide greater customer satisfaction because the machine can be tested by emulating in a software environment before building it. Enhanced mechatronics design and development process can easily be beneficial to a company to build and improve a machine by making them more reliable, cost effective, and efficient. This virtual environment allows us to incorporate and see the performance of the smart sensor in absence of actual hardware. These kinds of virtual design and development environment is helpful for modeling, simulation, and reducing overall cost of actual hardware implementation. The environment also improves utilization of machine.