Pleasant for the customer and for us
Have you ever wondered how all that plastic packaging is printed with advertising and information? The buckets of yogurt, butter tubs, the paint buckets? Arjen Pol, engineering manager at Brink Automation, is happy to explain. "It's not printed matter and it's not stickers," he corrects immediately. 'This advertising and information is printed on labels that are placed in moulds and fused with the product during the injection moulding process. In Mould Labeling in technical jargon; It's a very popular process with packaging manufacturers, because it's stable and beautiful and you can store a lot of different information on it.'
Speciality
Van den Brink senior started in a shed in Lunteren, exactly sixty years ago, and made the first moulds there. Brink, as the high-tech company is now known for short, produces moulds in Harskamp, Hapert and Winterwijk and also has several branches for maintenance, overhaul and repair. Through joint ventures and certified distributors, Brink supplies customers in more than seventy countries worldwide. Just last year, Brink opened a service location in the US. The number of employees has well exceeded 300. 'Of course we have competitors', says Arjen Pol, 'but making these advanced moulds and automations as a combination unburdens our customers and puts us in the top three in the world in this sector.'
For us, Cadac is much more than a software supplier. Cadac is a partner with whom we devise and develop digital solutions.
Arjen Pol
Manager Engineering
Automation
The moulds, single face or multiple, are mainly designed and produced in Harskamp, exactly in the shape as the customer has ordered it. The customer then uses them in their own injection moulding machines. But that doesn't tell Brink's story. Since 1977, the company has been helping the packaging industry with automation. 'It started with relatively simple machines', Arjen Pol knows from stories from colleagues. 'Stackers for buckets, for example, units for filling boxes. Purchased robots were equipped with the necessary grippers to remove and stack products, as well as machines for other industries. We are now building our own machines and robotised lines that enable our customers to work even faster and more efficiently. The latest trend is vision: control of production processes and end products with cameras. With the help of cameras and sensors, the products can be automatically packed in a box or pallet, without an operator or quality controller. Another step forward in automation.'
Product Data Management
Brink helps manufacturers to automate packaging, but also wants to be a frontrunner when it comes to digital developments. The company was an early adopter with the purchase of engineering software, first in 2D, then in 3D. About six years ago, Cadac implemented Product Data Management, based on Autodesk Vault Professional. 'Managing data is essential', says Arjen Pol. 'We work on a project basis for hundreds of clients. A production line consists of thousands of components. With PDM, we have all that data centrally available for revision management and smooth collaboration within a project. The library of standard parts is also the basis for our engineers.'
Autodesk Fusion Teams
In addition to making the data available to employees, however, Brink had an additional wish: to make the 3D models safe and transparent for their customers. A challenging assignment. In the end, we chose a portal where Brink's customers can view their machines and installations down to the smallest detail.' For Brink, this means that fewer hours need to be spent on customer-specific "delivery drawings". On the other hand, the customer is happy that he does not receive a thick book with cluttered drawings.
Customer portal in 3D
Arjen Pol explains the added value of such a portal on the basis of a practical example. "Look," he says as he opens a 3D model of a production line delivered to a German packer. "This machine is made up of many hundreds of parts. Each part can be clicked, visible in 3D and has a label with a unique number. If there is a malfunction or a component needs to be replaced, it is very easy for the customer to point out the relevant part in the model and pass it on to us. Our people can then take immediate action. Previously, these were often time-consuming procedures with e-mails back and forth and often an incorrect order. Parts had to be searched for in a hefty catalogue. Really a lot of work and with a high chance of errors. With this portal, our customers save valuable time and so do we. After-sales from which we all benefit.'
And there is another advantage, Bas Ligterink explains. "All customer models are in the cloud via Fusion and can therefore be accessed from anywhere. New releases and revisions of components are uploaded automatically. It is also very easy to transfer previous models to Fusion. In this way, Brink can also bring existing Inventor models to the cloud via PDM.'
Brink and Cadac: a partnership
Partnership, that's what both parties call the collaboration. 'For us, Cadac is much more than a software supplier,' concludes Arjen Pol. 'A partner with whom we devise and develop digital solutions. And although we have come a long way, we are far from finished digitising. I still see plenty of possibilities, such as ordering the necessary parts online. We are also currently working on a dashboard for customers to gain insight into their processes. With predictive maintenance, it would even be possible to automatically advise customers to replace and order certain wear parts. We're not there yet, but we'll go along with the options where possible.'