Zray Achieves 4,200-Hour Continuous Operation Benchmark Through Control System Refinements

Zray has completed a comprehensive optimization program for the control systems deployed across its full range of carton forming machines, resulting in a verified continuous operation benchmark of 4,200 hours with zero control-related stoppages. The upgraded control architecture has been implemented on all new machine deliveries since January 2026 and is available as a retrofit package for existing installations.

The optimization initiative was driven by field data collected from over 60 machines operating in European and CIS production environments. Analysis of 18 months of service records identified three primary sources of control-related downtime: servo drive communication losses during peak load conditions, HMI response latency during rapid format changes, and thermal drift in analog sensor readings affecting glue application precision.

Zray’s engineering team, working in collaboration with the automation partner Siemens, redesigned the control system architecture around a distributed topology with redundant communication paths. The core PLC has been upgraded to a Siemens S7-1500 series controller with a cycle time of 1 ms, while servo axes are now managed via Profinet IRT (Isochronous Real-Time) communication, ensuring deterministic data exchange with jitter below 1 microsecond.

“Control system reliability is the foundation on which mechanical performance is built,” stated Zray’s Chief Engineer. “A machine may have excellent mechanical design, but if the control system cannot maintain precise synchronization during extended production runs, the quality of every carton is at risk. Our 4,200-hour benchmark demonstrates that our control architecture is now world-class.”

Key Technical Improvements

The control system optimization addressed several critical areas:

• Servo Communication Redundancy: Each servo axis is now connected via dual Profinet cables routed through separate cable trays, eliminating single-point communication failures. In the event of a primary cable fault, the system switches to the secondary path within 10 ms without interrupting machine operation.
• Thermal Compensation Algorithm: A proprietary software module compensates for temperature-related sensor drift in the glue application system. Thermocouples embedded at each application station feed real-time temperature data to the PLC, which adjusts glue valve timing by up to 3 ms to maintain bead placement accuracy across the full operating temperature range of 15 °C to 40 °C.
• Predictive HMI Caching: The HMI software now pre-loads format changeover parameters into controller memory upon recipe selection, reducing the changeover sequence execution time by an average of 8 seconds and eliminating the HMI response delays previously experienced during rapid format switching.
• Enhanced Diagnostics: A structured fault taxonomy with over 180 machine-specific alarm codes has been implemented. Each alarm is logged with a timestamp, affected axis or component, and a three-level severity classification. This data is transmitted to Zray’s remote support platform for trend analysis.

Validation Results

The upgraded control system was subjected to an accelerated endurance test at Zray’s Hangzhou testing facility, where a ZR-450SP machine ran continuously for 4,200 hours—equivalent to approximately 12 months of single-shift production or 6 months of two-shift operation. During this period:

• Control-Related Stoppages: Zero
• Servo Communication Faults: Zero (previous generation averaged 0.7 faults per 1,000 operating hours)
• Glue Bead Placement Accuracy: Standard deviation of 0.12 mm, unchanged from hour 1 to hour 4,200
• Format Changeover Time: Averaged 11.2 seconds (HMI-driven recipe recall), compared to 19.5 seconds on the previous control generation

Customer Deployment and Feedback

The first production machine equipped with the upgraded control system was delivered to a German packaging converter in February 2026. After 1,900 operating hours, the machine has maintained a 99.1% availability rate with no control-related downtime events.

“The difference in operational stability is tangible,” reported the plant’s Maintenance Manager. “On our older machines, we would experience at least one communication fault every two to three weeks that required a controller reset. With the new system, we have not reset the controller once. It has fundamentally changed our confidence in running the machine unattended during break periods.”

Zray plans to extend the control system upgrade to its three-piece carton forming and gift box lid closing machine platforms by Q4 2026, with retrofit kits available for approximately 85% of machines currently in the field.