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In an effort to increase efficiency of the process of handling of an air-penetrating flexible container during its' filling with free-flowing materials a devise has been designed for automatic gripping, opening, holding and sealing of flexible container, containing vacuum gripping devise, pneumatic drive for its' transfer and a control system based on programmable logical controller. Vacuum gripping device can be produced using the method of additive technologies. It has a modular structure, while each module contains random or structured vacuum chambers located on work surface area, connected to a system of internally branched channels with the source of vacuum. Large number of small vacuum chambers in place allows to minimize leakage of air though pores and openings on the surface of the mouth of weaved flexible container, which increases reliability of holding and reduces energy consumption during the process of handling air-penetrating packaging during its' filling.

The quality control of a flexible container (FC) gripped and held by a gripping device during the entire cycle of packaging is an important task in the packaging process of bulk materials in a soft package. Noncontact optical methods of control have been developed and researched for the diagnostics of the automatic manipulating process of a flexible container when bulk materials are packaged in a soft package. Diagnostics of the FC gripping and opening accuracy was carried out herein with the help of machine vision. Processing of the image obtained when the neck of the FC was photographed was carried out by a neural network algorithm, which was made according to a scheme of a perceptron. An automated diagnostics system of the FC gripping and opening accuracy was developed in terms of the obtained algorithm. A control technique based on the algorithm of comparison with a reference was used to reveal the FC gripping and opening defects. This technique consists of preliminary processing of the image obtained from the camera and automatic search for deviations in FC gripping and opening. As a result, a report of defects in the process of FC gripping and opening was obtained.

The authors deal with the task of technological maintenance of operability and reliability of packaging equipment at life cycle stages, including its designing, manufacturing and operation. To improve the wear resistance of the most loaded mobile nodes of the lever-hinged gripping device of a packaging machine, a new composite material with upgraded technological and operational characteristics has been obtained, on the basis of studying the physical model of boundary friction. The paper presents the results of investigations of the plasma coating from the developed material.