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Multi-Carrier-System MCS
®
Intralogistics system for flexible transport
Today filling and packaging thousands of bottles of perfume,
tomorrow just a few tubes of
cream and the day after batch size 1 – everything on one and the same system. The Multi-
Carrier-System, a joint project between Festo and Siemens, has been put to work in a filling
and packaging machine from the machine manufacturer Optima.
T
he days when large quantities of
the same product were produced
day in, day out on one line are
very much in the past. A growing
number of product and packaging
variants, ever shorter product life cycles
as well as the trend towards customised
packaging and products are posing huge
challenges to manufacturers of filling and
packaging machines and their end
customers. The Multi-Carrier-System now
offers them a solution which provides
more flexibility and greater
competitiveness. Siemens and Festo are
launching the Multi-Carrier-System
together, a new linear motor track system
which delivers a flexible and modular
transport solution for industrial
automation. The collaboration brings
together the extensive controls expertise
of Siemens with Festo’s linear motor and
mechanical guidance technology.
Carriers within the system can be rapidly
and easily adapted to deal with different
formats, sizes and types of product –
down to batch sizes of one. Applications
include cosmetics packaging with its huge
number of product variants, food and
beverage processing with quick seasonal
changes or industrial manufacturing of
customised one-off products ordered via
online configurators.
On track to Industry 4.0
The Multi-Carrier-System already
incorporates options which are relevant
for Industry 4.0. These include the
particularly flexible electromechanical
design for cost-effective manufacturing
down to batch sizes of 1, as well as the
decentralised sensor and intelligence
systems of the workpiece carriers and
drives. Even the simulation function,
including a virtual twin, is fully prepared
for future system optimisation and
dimensioning. Program data can even be
generated from the simulation.
Maximum flexibility
Within the system, the containers that