Design approach for the development of format-flexible packaging machines

The rising demand for format-flexible packaging machines is caused by current market changes. Increasing the format- flexibility is a new goal for the packaging machine manufacturers' product development process. There are no methodical or design-orientated tools for a comprehensive consideration of this target. This paper defines the term format-flexibility in the context of packaging machines and shows the state-of-the-art for improving the changeover of production machines. The requirements for a new approach and the concept itself will be introduced, and the method elements will be explained. Finally, the use of the concept and the result of the development of a format-flexible packaging machine will be shown.