The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives in many ways, and months of isolation have had a profound effect on our daily routines and self-image. During this time of self-reflection and limited social interaction, many people have begun to rethink and refine their grooming rituals. One notable trend that has emerged during this time is the “skinification” of hair care.
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Default. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
During the lockdown, many people used hair dyes themselves, often causing hair damage. This experience has increased the desire for intensive care and repair and led to a boom in new products focusing on “skinification”. Skinification describes the approach of combining hair care with the principles of skin care, using high quality, nourishing ingredients commonly found in skin care products. Thanks to this new consumer interest, the beauty and home care industry in Germany was largely able to buck the difficult economic conditions in 2023, despite the ongoing slump in consumer spending and a high propensity to save. Domestic sales of toiletries and cosmetics rose by 10.6% to 15.8 billion euros. The strongest growth was recorded by deodorants with an increase of 21.2 percent, followed by colour cosmetics such as lipsticks, make-up and nail polish with an increase of 17.7 percent. Perfume sales rose by 15.0 percent.
But can production technology keep pace with the enormous product demand created by new care trends? For decades, a well-known manufacturer of special machinery from Weilheim in Oberbayern, Germany, has been working to ensure that this question can be answered with a resounding yes. Whether it’s structured and filigree bullet artworks, organic formulations, extremely soft or matte lipsticks and care sticks, or mascaras, serums, creams and deodorants, the filling and production systems from Weckerle Maschines are up to the extraordinary product variety of the cosmetics industry. The machine manufacturer, which is particularly focused on sustainability and climate neutrality, offers numerous innovative features, including the option of integrating different filling technologies and processing complex cosmetic products with a wide range of rheological properties. “It is very important to be able to dispense different media because the product portfolio of the industry and our customers is very diverse”, says Florian Gander, Manager of Mechanical Design at Weckerle, explaining one of the reasons that led to the development of a new linear filling and processing machine. The newly developed and unique MultiStick MS3 filling system focuses on the essential key parameters of the process, such as precise dosing, heating and cooling of high-quality lipsticks and other cosmetic and care products. In addition, this unique process incorporates all filling technologies (top & backfill, silicone and metal moulds), offering customers maximum flexibility and process reliability in their production.
In general, LinMot linear and linear rotary motors impress with their intelligent design and size, as well as their ease of operation and maintenance. Not to mention the performance that these drives have to offer.
But it is not just product variety that is important to customers. In addition to the ever-increasing trend towards smaller batch sizes and the desire to bring previously outsourced production in-house, the processing flexibility of new machines is a high priority. “A very clear customer requirement for the MS3 was fast format changeover, as they produce 12 different products on the machine”, says Gander. The fact that this format change can be carried out in less than 25 minutes is also thanks to the LinMot components, which have been used as standardised solutions for handling systems at Weckerle for more than 20 years.
The infeed system in the MultiStick machine was implemented using LinMot: In combination with the attached parallel grippers, the containers are picked up, aligned and set down by the LinMot H-guides. Thanks to the specific properties of these guides, the Z-stroke could be modified in such a way that the Weckerle engineers remain more independent of the load hanging underneath. In addition to standard pick-and-place movements, the LinMot linear guides also enable a variety of other processes: an unloading station equipped with a swivel gripper picks up components, turns them 90 degrees and either drops them into a chute or places them on a removal conveyor. This is also possible without any problems, because the intelligent design of the LinMot linear guides also serves as an anti-twist device and easily absorbs external forces as well as torsional and bending moments.
The highly dynamic LinMot linear modules and linear guides are ready-to-install, pre-assembled systems based on the B and H guides that have proven their worth for over two decades. These advanced drive solutions offer all the design advantages of the latest drive technology and are able to precisely and reliably implement a wide range of complex motion sequences for a variety of customer applications. Thanks to a wide range of strength classes, sizes, stroke lengths and a comprehensive range of accessories, as well as stainless steel versions and stroke lengths of up to 2 metres, LinMot linear guides and modules offer exceptional performance in any production environment and machine integration.
Particularly noteworthy is the precision of the PR01 and PR02 motors, which is essential in the cosmetics industry and would be difficult to achieve with pneumatic systems due to their limited controllability and lower repeatability. “The industry is so diverse that it is impossible to predict what geometries and structures, for example, lipsticks will have in the future. For this reason, LinMot’s flexibility is essential for Weckerle, as it would simply not be possible to achieve with pneumatic end position solutions”, explains Gander.
One of the biggest advantages of LinMot linear rotary motors is their ability to significantly simplify screwing processes.
The unique modular design of the PR02 series also supports precise motion sequences with a slim, hard-anodised housing with a reduced installation length into which various LinMot features such as force and torque sensors can be integrated. These enable high-precision, closed-loop force and torque control, as well as precisely reproducible and recordable screwing processes. Florian Gander emphasises: “New requirements for the screwing processes in our systems, which have to handle a wide range of different products, arise very quickly. The superior quality of the LinMot linear rotary motors is also demonstrated by the fact that we have no problems finding the start of the thread, even with a wide range of product variants.”
On the basis of our very good experience, when precision and dynamics are important, our choice is LinMot
The configuration of the workpiece carrier and the number of load cells to be used varies depending on the casting machine. This makes fast format changeover, also at another gripper station, extremely important. A LinMot linear rotary motor is used here, which moves with the gripper, grips the workpiece, turns 180 degrees and places part of the product on the load cell and the other part back on the workpiece carrier – a classic loading and unloading movement. Weckerle does not have to replace the entire gripper, only the gripper jaws. However, since a gripper plate can hold up to ten jaws, the unit has a high mass inertia. “The PR01 was used precisely because of these technical requirements. The movement has to be completed in a short cycle time, which is why this linear rotary motor from LinMot, combined with a gearbox, is perfect for this task”, explains Gander. With selectable gear ratios and guide rails to absorb lateral forces, the LinMot PR01 with gearbox also acts as the heart of the machine in many other closing, screwing and assembly applications, providing high torque even with large inertial loads.
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Yumpu. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More Information
