Digitalization and its discontents: Mosca highlights Industry 4.0 and IoT advancements at FachPack 2021

04 Oct 2021 --- Mosca has showcased efficiency and production advancements made through the COVID-19-induced digitalization boom at FachPack 2021. The company demonstrated some of its state-of-the-art innovations, including an automated pallet strapping machine, at the packaging industry event in Nuremberg, Germany 

Speaking with PackagingInsights from the trade show floor, Mosca’s group commercial director Adrian Ritzhaupt discusses how technological advancements catalyzed by the ongoing lockdown restrictions in many global regions have aided digital progress.

However, industry players like Mosca still face challenges in handling the sheer quantities of data needed to coordinate packaging machinery digitally. 

Making customers “smarter” 
The central actor on Mosca’s FachPack 2021 business stage was digitalized strapping machinery. 

“This is also an example of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT). I think we are already taking the next steps, and we want to make our customers a bit smarter,” says Ritzhaupt. 

“With different solutions here on the exhibition booth, you can see the industry is about to be both smarter and more flexible.”

The KZV-321 pallett stripping machine on show at FachPack2021.Mosca showcased the KZV-321 pallet strapping machine, which can adapt automatically to different pallet heights and products. 

“In this solution – made specifically in cooperation with one of our customers – we developed a machine able to strap stacked pallets and also choose to strap one pallet, or stack them on top of each other, and strap them together through the pallet and have a really solid bounding.”

“Then you can save in transportation and logistics, and you can save space. Also, this goes along with our sustainable solutions because we can reduce the carbon footprint and our customer can in turn reduce their loads. So this is also the first machine in this kind of range and it should give our customers more flexibility,” Ritzhaupt says. 

The digital twin 
Ritzhaupt explains Mosca is developing what it sees as a digital twin. “All the data for our machinery is stored in our cloud software. We already made the connections to the systems applications and products (SAP) system, but we can also connect our customers to the cloud,” he explains. 

“We can offer predictive maintenance options, wire performance KPIs, for example, from the machine. But also we are thinking about business models, like pay-per-use, for example, so far, it was a classic investment, and you have consumable goods.”

“However, in the future, we are looking to be really effective. So, what is your load, what is your packaging material, what you’re doing, and you pay per piece or per pallet or per bundle? So there are many possibilities.”Companies adopting IoT to improve production are faced with data storage issues, says Ritzhaupt.

The data problem 
While Ritzhaupt maintains digitalization will be the next big step in industry, already garnering “a lot of good feedback” from Mosca’s customers, some critical challenges remain.

“I still think the biggest challenge of Industry 4.0 and the digitalization movement is what do we do with all this data?”

“Therefore, we collect data, we analyze data, but what is the business model behind it? This is something we are working on with our customers.”

“We are ready. We have the possibility. We have the data in the cloud, we can bring it to the cloud, we can create KPIs for machines. Therefore, we are on the way but we are not there yet. It’s still a long journey, but we have begun.” 

Clouds at FachPack 2021 
Mosca was not the only company showcasing digitalization advances at FackPack 2021. PackagingInsights also spoke with coding and marking specialist Leibinger, who exhibited its new Leibinger Connect platform. 

The cloud-based data technology allows printing companies to monitor the status of their Leibinger CIJ printers remotely via URL in any browser. 

By Louis Gore-Langton

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