Originally published in Machinery Update (Automate UK), July/August 2026
This article first appeared in Machinery Update, published by Automate UK, examining the practical challenges of automation and featuring insights from both Rollon and Packserve. It explores why packaging line stability is often a bigger influence on long-term performance than equipment specification alone.
Read time: 3–4 minutes.
Author: Jon Puleston-Jones
Managing Director, Packserve Ltd
Keep theory and practice together – Real life automation may deliver surprises
Across robotics, machine tending and high-speed logistics, engineers are under pressure to move heavier payloads at faster speeds, without compromising accuracy, reliability or service life.
Today’s automation is demanding more from motion systems than ever before, starting with the fundamental principle that force increases with both mass and acceleration. As payloads grow and cycle times shorten, the forces acting on motion systems rise significantly, says rail, slide and actuator supplier Rollon.
According to country manager for UK and Ireland Lee Cheshire, rather than considering only steady-state operation, equipment specifications have to take into account inertia, and specifically the peak forces during acceleration and deceleration. In other words, the theory behind an installation may lag some way behind the practice of high-speed production.
A holistic approach to system design weighs up factors such as actuator stiffness, load distribution and axis configuration, says Cheshire. Equally important is the selection of the appropriate drive technology, such as belt-driven, rack-and-pinion or ball screw, each of which offers distinct advantages depending on the required speed, load and travel distance.
DYNAMIC CONDITIONS
“What we see consistently is that performance limitations rarely come from a single component, but from how the entire system performs under dynamic conditions,” Cheshire explains. “That’s why Rollon’s approach is always application-led with a focus on working with engineers to understand the full load case, from inertia and acceleration through to structural stiffness and drive selection. It’s this system-level thinking that ultimately ensures accuracy, repeatability and long-term reliability.”
As automation continues to scale across industries, Rollon argues, from manufacturing to logistics, the ability to manage dynamic performance will increasingly define system success. For engineers, this means looking beyond individual components and focusing instead on how the entire motion system responds under real operating conditions.
Packaging Line Stability in Practice
Packaging line engineering support company Packserve sees similar challenges occurring where a new element has been added to an existing line to improve performance. The assumption, says director Jon Puleston-Jones, is that if the specification is right, the result will follow once the line is powered up. In fact, output may not always improve.
“From a distance it’s doing what it should,” he says. “Stay with it a bit longer and it starts to feel different. A short stop clears, the line comes back, then spacing tightens slightly; the packer hesitates, upstream keeps pushing and it never quite settles into one rhythm again. Nothing has actually stopped, but it’s not clean. After a while output starts to drift.”
Most lines, he states, are not short of speed; they are short of control – and the results typically show up during recovery.
“A labeller pauses for 20-to-30 seconds, clears, comes back in,” says Puleston-Jones. “On paper, that’s nothing. In practice, the spacing through the line has already shifted, accumulation isn’t even anymore, downstream starts pulling inconsistently, upstream doesn’t back off, and from that point on, it never quite comes back together.”
A STABLE WINDOW
Automation tends to expose this type of tendency rather than fix it, he says: small differences that before could be absorbed start to be carried forward. “Attention goes to the new equipment, settings and adjustments, when the issue sits in how the line is behaving as a whole,” Puleston-Jones explains.
Until the system is operating inside a stable window, he adds, improvements will not tend to stick.
Further Reading
If you’re experiencing inconsistent line performance following equipment upgrades or automation projects, you may also find these articles useful:
This article first appeared in Machinery Update, published by Automate UK, examining the practical challenges of automation and featuring insights from Rollon and Packserve.