As Industry 4.0 gathers pace, and mobile technology becomes increasingly utilised throughout UK manufacturing sites, Endoline Machinery has announced plans to roll out a brand new, icon based HMI SMART screen. Featuring 50% less pages than previous screens, the new interface will cut programming time by half. 

The new SMART screen is set to become a blueprint for all systems built by Endoline, theUK’s leading end of line systems manufacturer, from January 2018, with retrofit options available on existing systems.

Significantly, companies who have several Endoline systems across multiple plants will benefit from the simplified interface as the control functionality will be standard across all machines, resulting in a reduction in programming time and with the benefit of remote access across multiple plants. In addition, the SMART screen, which features easy to use, spanner shaped icons, includes many additional benefits, including predictive maintenance tools, and a new predictive alert, notifying customers to recommended service times and general wear and tear. Endoline engineers can also customise the interface for faster and simpler integration with third party machinery.

Due to Endoline’s growing international customer base the interface also provides users with the option of switching between different operating languages.

“This a significant step forward for Endoline.” Andrew Yates, Sales Director for Endoline comments. “Our systems have become increasingly high spec over the years, with greater throughputs, and the ability to manage an unprecedented number of case sizes. However, as manufacturing units become progressively digitalised, it is essential that we simplify processes and make programming even more efficient.”

UK manufacturers have made considerable leaps over recent years to automate their production facilities, but there is now a greater emphasis on linking these systems together. Endoline has witnessed an overall increase in demand to integrate systems directly into customers own specific data networks. Consequently, they can capture, process and analyse the big data from the factory floor remotely, and it can be used to improve productivity, avoid downtime through predictive maintenance, upload new case recipes and optimise energy use.

Now, the integration of the SMART screen interface across all Endoline systems will bring this technical capability together, making factory floors even more efficient, with greater due diligence.