The demand for high-quality packaging solutions in India is propelling the growth of the packaging machinery manufacturing industry. Today, consumers are more attentive to the packaging of products they purchase, leading businesses to be more vigilant about packaging. Additionally, the fragile nature of several products necessitates the utilization of sturdy packaging.
However, although consumers wish for high-quality packaging solutions, there is also a need for these solutions to be cost-effective. Packaging machines come to the rescue here, offering companies more control over their packaging needs. Yet, within this segment, most manufacturers offer the same kind of machines that only accomplish specific tasks. Breaking this chain through its innovative machines complete with computer vision systems is the Chennai-based Best Enterprises. Best Enterprises is not just a machine manufacturing company, but also a pioneer in vision systems, providing state-of-the-art packaging solutions.
Smart Machines
As an enterprise that stands out for its quick adoption of cutting-edge technologies, Best Enterprises offers machineries with unique features. For instance, in addition to the Programmable Logic Controllers which are commonplace in the industry, Best Enterprises offers computer vision solutions which are still in the nascent stages of usage in the industry. Using this system, which the company anticipates will become widely used in the industry, Best Enterprises can manufacture smarter machines.
Leveraging its in-house development team, the company is further able to enhance the features of its machines by integrating self-created software. The unique software developed from scratch allows complex problem-solving solutions that even leave behind the typical smart camera integration solutions. What makes the company even more favorable is its ability to offer all standout features in its machines at low costs.
Revolutionizing the Industry
The company’s implementation of advanced technologies has enabled it to revolutionize the packaging machinery manufacturing industry by creating original machines unlike ever seen before. The company’s flagship offering, a matchstick counting, and filling machine is what put it on the map as a revolutionary organization. Earlier, due to the limitation of the volumetric filling, there would be a counting error of about four to six matchsticks per box. However, the company, through its counting unit and filling machine, effectively brought that number down to one to two matches.
“Ensuring accurate matchstick count has been a challenge in matchbox industries. Sri Ram matches and Sri Ganapathy matches two prominent matchbox manufacturers in India were determined to find a solution and presented us with this problem. In 2016, after extensive research, we successfully launched the World’s first computer-vision based matchstick counting and filling system. Now it is considered the superior and premium type of matchstickfilling because of its unparalleled counting accuracy and uncompromised build quality”, further shares Gorky.
The old machines in the matchbox industry used volumetric filling of matchsticks. Since matchsticks have intrinsic irregularities in texture, roughness, and phosphorous head size, the volumetric filling resulted in over-count and under-count problems. Vision-based counting was immune to these inconsistencies and proved to be the right method of filling matchsticks. Furthermore, the machine also had tuning and calibration routines to adjust its algorithm for different kinds of matchsticks.
Counting is one key area of the filling process. The other important aspect involves ensuring that the phosphorus heads of the matchsticks are aligned in the same direction. To achieve this the matchsticks are conveyed along a vibratory conveyor with specified gaps. The additional weight causes the head side of the matchstick to descend into the gaps, thus creating a uniform stream of aligned matchsticks. These are then vibrated at high frequencies and filled into the inner matchboxes. The machine fills 5 Lakh matchboxes per day. Apart from its flagship matchstick counting and filling machine, the company also offers intelligent inspection systems.
Our flagship packing machine counts & fills more than 2 Crore matchsticks per day
Like all packaging, matchboxes have a front side with the brand image and a back-side with fine prints of specifications and manufacturer details For proper packaging, the matchboxes must be aligned in a frontfacing manner. But since the boxes are fed into a conveyor bin, they get mixed up. Earlier, the industry used multiple smart cameras to differentiate between the front-print and back-print. This required teaching the smart-cameras every time a new brand is filled, which is quite common in the industry.
And, the older smart-camera systems relied on the intelligence of the operator. Best Enterprises designed and developed an intelligent system that can identify the key features and differences between the front and back prints on its own. The programmers at Best Enterprises developed and integrated the complete software and hardware to work seamlessly with the matchbox-filling machine. Thus Best Enterprises has contributed greatly to the advancement of the matchbox industry.
Journey So Far & Future Ahead
The journey of Best Enterprises began in early 2002, when the company's Founder, Solaiappan, established the organization to realize his deep passion for machine building. Starting with the manufacture of spare parts and small-scale automation, the company transitioned to manufacturing special-purpose packing machines by 2008.
"Our matchstick counting system created a technological revolution in the matchbox industry"
During the initial years, Best Enterprises handled the mechanical aspects and outsourced the programming and PLC automation requirements. However, with his son Gorky joining the company in 2013, the company also brought the programming and software development procedures under its own production operations. Passionate about software and image processing systems, he built an in-house team of experts, bringing the entire spectrum of machine-building solutions under the company’s operations.
“Starting as a small-scale company that manufactured spare parts, we have come a long way and have established a solid reputation in South India. We have designed and developed a wide range of automation systems involving multiple PLCs, HMI, Servo systems, Vision systems, VFD, Pneumatics, and more. With a workforce of 70 employees including skilled designers, engineers, and fabricators we build machines at 3 manufacturing units in Thiruvottiyur, Chennai. We have a team of service engineers and technicians to provide on-call and in-person support, thus minimizing downtime of the machinery”, further shares Gorky.
With a stellar team of specialists, the company is greatly focused on smart machines and vision systems, which will continue to be a central focal point for the firm in the coming years as well. Currently, the firm caters to niche market segments and is planning to expand its footprint into additional sectors like pharmaceuticals and food packaging.
The company is also keen on the rise of AI technology and its applications in computer vision. Gorky believes that the GPT-4V (vision) will lead to significant advancements in vision-based inspection systems. “AI-based vision systems will become so advanced that they won't necessitate a training dataset to differentiate good and bad products. This intelligence will be integrated into the systems, resulting in enhanced inspection capabilities”, says Gorky. Adding on to its future agenda, Best Enterprises’ efforts will also be directed towards expanding its manufacturing facilities as well as boosting R&D initiatives. Through these collective measures, the firm is poised to emerge as the industry leader in the near future.
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