Robots play a role as Europe changes to Euro

Citation

(2002), "Robots play a role as Europe changes to Euro", Industrial Robot, Vol. 29 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2002.04929eaf.002

Robots play a role as Europe changes to Euro

Robots play a role as Europe changes to Euro

Keywords: Handling, Robots

As from January 2002, the European Single Currency, the Euro, is available to all (see Figure 1). April 2001 marked the service introduction of a robot production line set up by GAPE-CEMES at Monnaie de Paris – the Paris Mint – for packaging boxes of Euro coins. Quite naturally, Stäubli robots found themselves a place in this work: strengths such as working amplitude, cycle time and programming language made all the difference.

Monnaie de Paris belongs to the French Ministry of Finance and is tasked with producing and minting the Republic of France's currency. In addition, a number of foreign countries' currencies are minted here as well. For more than two years now, EMP (Etablissement Monétaire de Pessac, the Pessac Mint Facility) has been producing the forthcoming Euro coins ready for their release on 1 January 2002.

In September 2000, Monnaie de Paris chose the technical solution put forth by GAPE and CEMES (Poitiers, France), design specialists of high rate production equipment, primarily in assembly and packaging systems. These two sister companies integrate all of their engineering, mechanical design and automation and robotic systems skills in order to offer turnkey equipment solutions.

Figure 1 The Euro

GAPE and CEMES designed and perfected a packaging line that produces 500kg cases/pallets, consisting of an assortment of boxes of Euro coins taken from eight box types off eight single-product pallets.

Removal from the pallets is performed by two similar robot equipped cells, each one handling four kinds of boxes of coins. These robotic cells, located on either side of an eight track transfer and accumulation line, each include an RX175 L robot. These robots, equipped with a suction cup type multi-format clamp, unstack the boxes from the palettes and place them, right way round, on the assigned tracks on the conveyor line.

Packing is ensured by a robot equipped cell located at the end of the conveyor line. An RX135 robot lifts the boxes previously referenced by the indexing stations that equip each track and places these products in the 500kg box, according to the selected palletizing diagram.

The expertise provided by GAPE-CEMES ensured that a robotic installation could meet the following demands: amplitude constraints affecting robot movements, cycle times (currently around five metric tons worth of boxes are processed every hour, a rate of ±3.4 seconds per box) as well as the strict operator.

The safety barriers around the cells were the subject of in-depth design work to ensure that the palettes could be replaced by human operators in total safety, without the need to stop the robots from working.

The diversity of eight box types, in terms of size (length, width and height) as well as weight (4kg to 6.3kg) required that GAPE and CEMES develop a multiple format suction cup equipped with clamps for handling work at high speeds.

The operational results achieved by this robotic packaging line fully confirm the initial choice of a robot-based solution. When compared with Cartesian type handling systems or semi-automatic packaging stations, the absence of carrying structures, speed, ability to evolve and the technological characteristics of these polymorphous robots were determining factors in choosing robotic equipment; in turn, increased productivity, significant cycle time gains as well as improvements in working conditions were all achieved.