Revolutionising Industrial Printing with Mitsubishi Electric & KELLER

KELLER, a leading provider of industrial printing machines and consumables, delivers cutting-edge solutions for a variety of industries, including home appliances, automotive, cosmetics, glass manufacturing, consumer electronics, and the medical sector. Their advanced printing technologies – such as green printing, PET printing, hot stamping, and thermal transfer – offer unparalleled flexibility, efficiency, and high-speed production capabilities.

One of KELLER’s most ambitious projects is a new modular printing system designed to optimise production efficiency and flexibility. To achieve this, they partnered with Mitsubishi Electric to integrate a powerful automation and motion control system that enhances precision, scalability, and performance.

KELLER faced several critical obstacles in developing their new modular printing system:

• Inflexible Legacy Systems: Existing equipment was not designed for rapid reconfiguration, limiting the ability to adapt to different printing requirements.
• Synchronisation Complexities: Coordinating up to 128 servo drives for high-speed printing demanded an unprecedented level of precision, which legacy control systems could not deliver.
• Integration Hurdles: The need to support multiple communication protocols within one unified network posed a significant technical challenge.
• Scalability & Expansion Needs: As market demands evolve, the system needed a design that would easily accommodate additional modules, such as vision sensors for enhanced quality control.

KELLER needed a robust, intelligent automation solution that would overcome these limitations and provide a scalable, future-ready platform for their industrial printing processes.

To ensure peak performance and maximum flexibility, KELLER integrated Mitsubishi Electric’s state-of-the-art automation solutions, including:

• MELSERVO MR-J5 Servo Drives – Servo technology ensuring ultra-fast and precise motion control.
• LD78GH5 Motion Control Module – A high-performance controller synchronising up to 128 servo axes via CC-Link IE TSN.
• CC-Link IE TSN Network – A time-sensitive networking (TSN) solution that enables real-time communication across all machine components with high-bandwidth Gigabit Ethernet performance, supporting multiple protocols within a single network.

The modular machine structure allows components to be swapped or expanded effortlessly, ensuring adaptability to evolving production demands.

"The implementation of time sensitive networking technology provided us with the capability to simultaneously support multiple protocols and prioritise them within a single network. Thanks to the network convergence capability that TSN offers, we will be able to connect additional vision sensors in the future. This will allow us to easily expand the system in the future."
— Tomasz Andrzejewski, Automation Department Manager, KELLER

Advanced automation solutions has delivered immediate and quantifiable benefits for KELLER's production capabilities. With the new system fully operational, the company has documented significant improvements in several critical performance areas:

• Higher Throughput – Increased production speed from 3,000 to 3,600 units per hour.
• Seamless Synchronisation – Real-time motion control across 128 servo axes, ensuring absolute precision.
• Modular & Scalable Design – The system can be expanded with additional modules and vision sensors as needed.
• Optimised Network Performance – CC-Link IE TSN enables multiple protocols to run on a single, converged network.
• Future-Ready Automation – KELLER can enhance its machine capabilities without overhauling existing infrastructure.

The collaboration between KELLER and Mitsubishi Electric highlights how advanced networking, motion control, and automation can redefine efficiency in industrial printing. By implementing high-speed, modular, and reconfigurable technology, KELLER has set new industry benchmarks for flexibility, speed, and precision.

"What KELLER has been able to do by incorporating time sensitive networking gigabit Ethernet in their machines it’s offers them a very powerful machine solution that can easily address the demands of their customers."
— John Browett, General Manager, CLPA Europe

Looking to optimise your production line? Contact us today to explore how Mitsubishi Electric can revolutionise your quality control processes and improve efficiency.