Study finds packaging machinery offers opportunities

FEBRUARY 10--The total production value of packaging machinery within EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) is expected to exceed €15.6 billion by 2009, experiencing a CAGR of nearly 5%, according to a new report from automation analysts IMS Research (Wellingborough, UK; www.imsresearch.com). IMS Research analyzed seven different packaging machinery types and found that filling and dosing machinery was the largest market, accounting for more than 20% of packaging-machinery production revenues. It was also the machine type found to offer the largest opportunity for automation-component suppliers targeting the packaging-machinery market.

Senior analyst Tim Dawson commented, "Packaging machinery is a particularly attractive market for automation-component suppliers as the automation content of a machine typically accounts for about 15%--20% of the total machine cost." Dawson continued: "Not only is the packaging-machinery market itself experiencing growth, but the amount of automation equipment being used by machine builders is also increasing, as companies integrate more robotics, servomotors, and control equipment to increase machine flexibility and productivity. This should make the market very appealing to automation-component suppliers in EMEA."

Increased automation expenditure is allowing users to replace often obsolete mechanical solutions. This increases the reliability of machinery, reduces downtime, and often reduces labor costs, as fully automatic machines require less employee involvement and training. Machine vision is also being used more often for replacing much more costly manual inspection where mistakes are common.