Integrated machinery lines · Overview
Packaging machine: the reference line RL-1
When machines from several suppliers are linked into one line, the line needs documentation of its own — not a stack of machine manuals. These pages show how that documentation can work, using one reference packaging line. Every page answers one question and tells you where it sits in the line and in the lifecycle, so you can start reading anywhere.
Start here
- Is our line one machine in the legal sense — and who is responsible for it?Concept · When a line becomes one machine
- Which signals do the machines exchange, and what does each one mean?Reference · Interfaces and signals
- A guard door in the labeller zone was opened. How do I restart the line safely?Task · Restart after a zone stop
- A station stands still although it has no fault. Why?Troubleshooting · Station starved or blocked
- What has to happen between delivery of the machines and handover of the line?Lifecycle phase · Commissioning the line
The line at a glance
- Product
- 0.5-litre PET bottles, cases of 12, one pallet every 9 minutes
- Rated output
- 12,000 bottles per hour, set by the filler
- Machines
- Six machines from four suppliers, plus conveyors
- Line control
- Line controller with a PackML state model per machine
- Safety
- One safety controller, PROFIsafe, four safety zones, one emergency stop circuit for the whole line
- Responsible for the line
- The system integrator, as manufacturer of the assembly
Z1 · Filling
- Infeed and accumulation conveyorFeeds empty bottles and buffers them ahead of the fillerSystem integrator
- Filler and capperFills and caps the bottles in one monoblockSupplier A
Z2 · Labelling and inspection
- LabellerApplies wrap-around labels and the batch codeSupplier B
- Inspection and rejectChecks fill level, cap and label by camera and rejects faulty bottlesSupplier B
Z3 · Case packing
- Case packerGroups bottles and packs them into cases of 12Supplier C
Z4 · Palletising
- Palletiser and stretch wrapperStacks the cases on pallets and wraps each palletSupplier D
All pages of the line
One page type per layout
- ConceptWhen a packaging line becomes one machineWhy linked machines that work as an integral whole count as one machine under EU machinery law, and what that means for the integrator.Explains what something is and why it matters
- ReferenceInterfaces and signals between the stationsReference of the signals the machines of packaging line RL-1 exchange: PackML states, material-flow handshakes and the safety signals per zone.Lets you look up facts: signals, states, values
- TaskRestart the line after a zone stop in the labelling zoneStep by step: restart packaging line RL-1 after an interlocked guard door in labelling zone Z2 was opened and the zone stopped.Tells you how to do one thing, step by step
- TroubleshootingA station stands still without a fault: starved or blockedWhy a machine on packaging line RL-1 stops without a fault message, and how to find the station that really causes the standstill.Leads from a symptom to its cause and remedy
- Lifecycle phaseCommissioning the line: from machine acceptance to handoverThe commissioning phase of packaging line RL-1: acceptance tests, integration, validation of the safety functions and the documents handed over.Shows one phase: steps, roles and deliverables
Why a line needs pages of its own
Each machine arrives with its own instructions, written for a machine that stands alone. On the line, the same machine is started by a line controller, stopped by a neighbour, fed from a buffer and guarded by a safety zone it shares with other machines. The questions people ask on the shop floor are about exactly these connections: why is the case packer waiting, what happens upstream when I open this door, who signs the declaration of conformity for the line.
None of these questions has an answer in a single machine manual. The line pages answer them — and link down to the machine documentation where the detail lives.
How these pages are built
The pages follow the idea of Every Page is Page One (Mark Baker): readers arrive from search, a link or a QR code on the machine, not from a table of contents. So every page
- stands on its own and names its context at the top: the line, the stations and zones it concerns, the lifecycle phase and the audience;
- has one purpose and follows the layout of its page type — concept, task, reference, troubleshooting or lifecycle phase;
- stays on one level of detail and links down to machine manuals and across to neighbouring pages;
- links by relation: prerequisites, next steps, the concept behind a task, the reference behind a signal.
The six pages of this pilot each use a different page type, so together they show every layout. Why this project exists at all is explained on the EPPO Projects page.
About the reference line
RL-1 is fictional, but typical: a monoblock filler sets the pace, the labeller and the inspection belong to one supplier, the case packer and the palletiser to two others, and the system integrator adds the conveyors, the line controller and the safety controller. The pages describe how documentation for such a line can be structured. They don't replace the instructions for use of a real line, and naming a term or a standard never implies that a line complies with it.
knowledge.aitechdoc.world · Reviewed 26 September 2026
RL-1 is a fictional reference line. These pages show how documentation for an integrated machinery line can be structured; they don’t replace the instructions for use of a real line.