Moving Forward to Industry 4.0

Moving forward with Industry 4.0

Plastic. Does any other word in modern manufacturing stir up so much debate?

It was once the wonder solution. For the secondary packaging of consumer goods in particular, its reliability has long been difficult to replicate sustainably. Why?

Well, plastic is predictable. It’s easy to handle and manipulate for your production. Even at very high speeds. And it was cheap too; financially, if not environmentally. But the monetary costs are beginning to stack up, with manufacturers soon being duty bound to pay for the safe disposal of any single-use plastic in their production.

The big challenge is how we move away from single-use, without going backwards on productivity, and actually making improvements at the same time. Automation is one solution to this complicated question.

In this month’s Vision Update we explore the latest developments in deep learning automation where improvements are being made right here, right now - from servicing critical factory conveyors to counting cakes.

The Pandemic has created huge demand for some, and huge challenges for all. With socially distanced shift patterns now ingrained in most sites, machine vision is automating new manual tasks when we need it most.

Thanks for reading,
Martin