Investment in high quality robotics, backed up with experienced support, is proving to make a big difference in the food and beverage manufacturing industry. Robotic Automation explains how the company's Motopal palletising cells worked for Arnott’s.
Industrial Robots and AGVs are very powerful and flexible. Because they can be designed to reliably achieve a multitude of repetitive tasks, they are also suitable for many industries.
But it’s when you combine the two technologies to work in unison that the benefits become low hanging fruit.
Unlike dedicated large processing lines, Robotics plus AGVs are easily adaptable to the inevitable product changes as they occur.
As a case in point, Robotic Automation completed a project with Australia’s iconic biscuit and snack company Arnott’s, installing its compact Motopal palletising cells, which are intelligently serviced by AGVs with empty pallet in-feed and full pallet exchange.
As Arnott’s has grown over the years and product lines have become increasingly complex, it was clear there was a need to upgrade to the next generation of intelligent palletising system. The 25-year-old Motoman palletiser that RA installed in Arnott’s NSW factory in Huntingwood in 1996 had well outperformed its lifespan, having produced several million pallets.
Arnott’s required an integrated palletising solution that would work within existing space constraints and provide the flexibility to handle a large range of shelf ready cartons at high speeds. It needed to be easily programmable to support rapid product configuration and instant product changeovers. Pallets would need to be checked, wrapped and SSCC labelled, and all of this with minimal manning.
Prior to this, Robotic Automation had provided Arnott’s with a version of a trial Motopal, which incorporated patented Motopal 780 robotic gripper technology.
This trial system had been running successfully on a range of shelf ready cartons for about two years, proving it could handle every possible configuration, including some of the more difficult shelf ready products.
The next step was to design a system that would fit the available space, a two-storey mezzanine with very limited access to a single lift to the ground floor delivery dock.
The adaptable modular system design, featuring eight Motoman robots, can achieve maximum floor space utility. The use of windows-based, smart MAX AGVs provides increased flexibility, while achieving required productivity rates.
Employing proprietary Motoman MotoLogix software, robots can be completely programmed and controlled via the host AB-PLC. This means all unique product programs can be simply changed in an instant, and on the fly.
The result is a modular palletiser system that is intelligent, versatile, flexible, and intuitive.
