An Australian personal hygiene company has installed a Scott Compact Robot Palletiser system, built by Scott and incorporating a Kuka robot. The new palletising system provides benefits in reliability, repeatability, efficiency, reduced product damage and is packaged into a compact system with a small footprint in the factory.
The Scott Compact Robot Palletiser system was built late 2019 to support a product line the personal hygiene company had recently installed. The customer was looking at automated options in a bid to avoid manual palletising, reduce labour costs and increase operator safety. The customer specified requirements for a compact system occupying a small footprint, which was cost effective and easily accessible to operators while running. It would also need to be implemented quickly, with minimal or no disruption to existing production.
Scott had installed a different palletising system in this customer’s plant seven years prior to this project. The successful implementation of the system combined with Scott’s existing knowledge of the site and flexible approach made Scott the supplier of choice for this customer.
Collaborating with long-time partner and robotics specialist Kuka, Scott was able to acquire a robot for the system faster than usual, compressing the timeline for delivery – a benefit that appealed to the customer over other automation providers.
By listening to what the customer needed, exploring various options and working with the customer to achieve the best possible solution, Scott developed a robot system that could have a full pallet removed without stopping the robot. This new system was the Scott Compact Robot Palletiser, a fully automated end-of-line solution to palletise products using dual cells. Able to palletise up to 30 cartons per minute with a maximum height of 2.4m, the system could be implemented quickly and with very little impact on the existing production lines.
According to Scott, the customer is very happy with the system, which is delivering a good return on investment. Scott’s speedy response was especially pleasing – initial contact through to delivery took 14 weeks. The install had no impact on the customer’s existing production line and with the system being safe and easy to operate as well as easy to maintain it has surpassed the customer’s expectations.
System overview
An operator, usually a forklift driver, can see when it is safe to enter the cell and places an empty pallet into both sides of the robot cell. Light curtains on entrances to both cells mean if the forklift, or a person, tries to enter the cell when operational or unsafe, the robot stops, doing exactly what the customer asked – increasing operator safety. Once the pallet is in the cell, an operator selects the pallet pattern and starts production. The robot then picks cases from an infeed conveyor and places them in the correct pattern on the pallet in the cell in use.
Once the pallet is completed, the reverse guillotine safety guarding will raise, safely separating the cell from the robot and allowing the operator to remove the completed pallet while the robot continues palletising in the second cell. This dual cell system meant that there was no disruption to the production line and the safety systems in place gave the operators access to the cells when they were not in use.
See the system in action here:
