Festo Electric Drives in Tetra Pak Filling Machines
After two years of intensive development and testing, Festo has
developed a customized brushless motor solution suitable to meet
all customer requirements. An open door for future Tetra Pak
applications for Festo electric drives!
Tetra Pak develops and manufactures complete
processing, packaging and distribution systems for
food.
Their business has expanded to include more than just
packaging liquid food products. Ice cream, cheese, dry
foods, fruit, vegetables, pet food are also products
that can be processedor packaged in Tetra Pak
machines.
Tetra Pak products are divided into several different
categories such as packaging, processing equipment,
filling machines, distribution equipment and service
products. The filling machines A3 Flex, A3 Speed and
A3 Compact Flex are three important machines of the
Tetra Pak core range, developed in Italy and produced
both in Italy and Austria.
These three different configurations have been created
to meet the demands of all Tetra Pak customers: A3 Flex
is a flexible filling machine for medium-sized customers
in rapidly changing markets, A3 Speed is perfect for
customers handling bulk production and high pack num-
bers that are produced on one machine, and the A3
Compact Flex is used for portion packs where space is
limited but the same flexibility as the A3 Flex is needed.
Tetra Pak has chosen Festo as its partner for the
development of a new special motor solution to
replace the existing Sick HyperDrive which is mounted
on the A3 Flex and A3 Speed filling machines. The
project started in 2011 and is seen as an application
reference so that the same solution can be installed in
other Tetra Pak machines.
Application description
Starting from a reel, the packaging material goes
through a sterilization process. At the end of the filling
machine, the packaging material is formed into a tube,
then sealed, filledand cut and the package is shaped
into its final form.
A motor system is used in the non-splash zone for the
adjustmentof the tube forming rotation and, in some cases,
a small volume adjustment of the package. The
requirements of Tetra Pak were for a Festo motor with
integrated controller with a higher performance than the old
Sick solution. In addition, Tetra Pak asked for additional
features such as NSF-H1 lubrication on the gearbox, already
uploaded parameters, gearbox with a special design,
different connectors for DeviceNet and the power supply
and the ability to avoid any homing at the customer's site.
Tetra Pak also required a motor with an angular gearbox so
that it could be mounted in places where space was
restricted.
For more information: www.festo.com/us/food
 Final result
After some considerations it was decided that the
CAP30 Applicator, a complete distribution unit for
applying all caps available on the market, needed five
motors for its quick format change.

The Festo solution

In cooperation with Tetra Pak we installed an MTR-ECI
motor able to fulfil all the requirements.

Festo has developed a brushless motor with absolute

multiturn encoder and the following special features:

MTR-ECI-52R-MG25-R3DN-FG-SA, straight gearbox

• NSF-H1-H1 lubrication on the gearbox
• Special drawing gearbox with ratio 25:1
• DIP switch next to the LEDs with a protective foil for
DeviceNet address selection
• M12 and M16 connectors for DeviceNet and the power
The project took two years and there were times
supply
when the end result seemed hard to achieve.
• Special dedicated firmware
In the end Tetra Pak signed a Customer Approval
MTR-ECI-52R-MW33-R3DN-FG-SA, angular gearbox
Agreement recognizing Festo as a unique motor
• NSF-H1-lubrication on the gearbox
supplier for this application for volume and
• Special drawing gearbox with ratio 33,3:1
rotation adjustment and format change with a
• DIP switch next to the LEDs with a protective foil for
forecast of 500 motors per year.
DeviceNet address selection
• M12 and M16 connectors for DeviceNet and the power
Tetra Pak started to order both versions in February
supply
2013. The excellent effort, support and very close
• Special dedicated firmware
cooperation between the Development Electric
Drives department in headquarters and the Key
Account Team were our key strengths and seen as
our main added value by the customer.

Festo Corporation

Commercial support:
Call: 1.800.99.FESTO (1.800.993.3786)
Fax: 1.800.96.FESTO (1.800.963.3786)
Email: customer.service@us.festo.com
Visit: www.festo.com/us

Technical support:
Call: 1.866.GO.FESTO (1.866.463.3786)
Fax: 1.800.96.FESTO (1.800.963.3786)
Email: product.support@us.festo.com