Robot system takes the biscuit

Citation

(1998), "Robot system takes the biscuit", Industrial Robot, Vol. 25 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.1998.04925caf.009

Robot system takes the biscuit

Robot system takes the biscuit

A biscuit manufacturer has installed a Motoman multi-robot carton handling and palletising system as part of an automation programme designed to maximise throughput, and operational flexibility.

Supplied as a complete turnkey installation, the system comprises: four high-speed Motoman palletising robot cells integrated with eight product infeed conveyor lines, "skidboard" dispenser, and a labelling machine as part of the product tracking procedure.

The capacity of each of these robot cells is eight pickups per minute. As each pickup is typically two cartons, a consistently high volume of throughput can be maintained. The palletising system has a peak rate of one complete skid per minute, a process which includes the dispensing of a skid board, fully stacking the pallet with boxes and conveying to storage.

Overall view of MOTOMAN biscuit carton handling and palletising system

The system can cope with 50 different sized cartons and 16 palletising patterns. It can, moreover, be programmed with any number of patterns to meet the requirements of multiple product handling. In addition, micro-control of the gripper ensures products are not damaged.

A range of standard or purpose designed CE certificated systems based on a range of high-speed palletising robots is available. It is claimed that currently these are capable of up to 1,700 repetitive operations per hour within a reliability factor of 60,000 hrs MTBF. All programming is via a user friendly Yasnac MRC 32-bit multi-processor which can manage up to 21 servo-axes, says the company.

An off-line programming package, ROTSY-PAL, is also available. This has been especially developed to simplify the handling of mixed or small batchs and dispenses with the need to teach programme the robot. With this software it is only necessary to input product dimensions, pallet size and stacking pattern required to achieve optimum performance.

For further information contact Robert Lewis, Sales and Projects Manager, Motoman Robotics (UK) Ltd. Tel: +44 (0) 1295 272755.