March of the robots

6 September 2011



As robots advance upstream, speed and size take on increased importance, writes Lynda Searby


Historically, robots were mainly installed at the end of FMCG lines, for carrying out palletising duties. However, this is changing, with an increasing number being deployed upstream for primary and secondary packaging functions.

“At the moment, palletising is where the bulk of the work is,” affirms Paul Wilkinson, business development manager with Pacepacker Services. “But we are seeing companies starting to think further up the line, with pick and place of goods into trays and boxes.”

This is driving robotic developments in two areas: size and speed, which, as Wilkinson points out, is actually quite logical.

“When you palletise you’re picking up one large object containing, say, 20 smaller objects, so you’re running at a twentieth of the speed of the production line, whereas pick and place needs to be a quicker solution and needs a machine with a smaller footprint.”

These two demands have been addressed by Kawasaki Robotics in the development of its R Series light to medium duty robots. They are in available in payloads from 3kg to 80kg, with the lighter payloads best suited to packing product into boxes or trays.

“The R Series succeeded our S Series robots, and they are much quicker and more compact,” explains Jim Carr, sales and senior manager with Kawasaki Robotics. “The robot’s structure is much lighter, which enables it to move more quickly, and the motor technology is more advanced, so the same output can be achieved with a smaller motor. In most food factories space is at a premium, so this is important.”

ABB’s IRB 120 robot, meanwhile, is so small its base only covers half a piece of A4 paper.

“We did everything to make sure that the IRB 120 was as compact as possible,” says Nicolas De Keijser, the robot’s product manager. “In every industry floor space is expensive, so we wanted to keep the robot as close as possible to the machine it works with. The robot’s base covers only 18 by 18cm.”

ABB originally intended the robot for assembly work in the electronics industry, but it has turned out to have much broader appeal. Since it was launched in January 2010, the IRB 120 has attracted interest from the pharmaceutical, packaging, food and beverage industries among others.

“It’s a practical robot for small, simple tasks,” says De Keijser. “A six-axis robot — with a jointed arm and wrist — the IRB 120 offers a spherical working envelope. Its capabilities include placing small tubes into centrifuges, handling solar cells or picking up stock cubes and placing them in a carton. And it’s fast. Using a standard industry test cycle, the IRB 120 can make up to 100 picks per minute.”

The robot’s new controller, the IRC5 Compact, was also designed with size in mind. “We reduced the weight from 150kg to just 27kg, as well as reducing the controller’s size by more than 80% compared with the standard model. Having a small robot with a large controller didn’t make a lot of sense in terms of footprint reduction,” says De Keijser.

ABB has since extended the functionality of the IRC5 Compact to cover six ABB robot families: IRB 120, IRB 140, IRB 260, IRB 360 (FlexPicker), IRB 1410 and IRB 1600. It says with this step more robot users will be able to enjoy the benefits of a greatly reduced controller footprint and simplified commissioning, while retaining the IRC5 functionality.

Staying with the speed theme, in April, food packaging automation specialist Abar launched a new system for loading thermoformed or top-sealed rigid trays into cases at speeds of up to 200ppm. The LR-80TCR Loading System comprises retail pack in-feed conveyors, a case erecting system for Regular Slotted Containers (RSC), an LR-80 robot case loader and a case closer. The speed is said to be down to the Fanuc Robotics M10-iA robot, which is the core automation component of the LR-80TCR.

Four robotic systems designed by Abar Automation and incorporating Fanuc robots have been in operation at Greenvale, the UK’s largest supplier of fresh potatoes, for 10 years, and are still achieving uptime of 99.98%.

Each Abar DL-16 Container Loading Cell is currently picking and placing 60 2.5kg and 5kg bags of potatoes into Merchandisable Units (MUs) per minute. Originally, the systems had been designed to handle 30 bags per minute from a twisted tape bagging machine, but improved packaging and capacity demands have seen this increase. In fact, over the last 10 years, the systems have undergone three major upgrades to meet customer packaging and volume demands.

Rob Phillips, operations manager with Greenvale, explains: “Since the robots were initially installed the systems have been moved and upgraded at least three times to accommodate different packaging formats. If we’d had a pick and place machine on a conveyor system the cost of re-engineering, where possible, would have been significantly higher.”

Schubert has created a tray packing system with a difference for German lemon juice producer Sizilia – the system packs 100 and 200ml PE bottles into trays in a two-layer configuration with the top bottles placed upside down in the spaces between the upright bottles on the bottom layer. It does this at speeds of 220 bottles per minute, using a two-axis TLM F2 robot for placing upright bottles, a three-axis TLMF3 unit for flipping over the bottles and a robotic conveyor device called the TLM transmodule to transport the bottles along the packaging line on a track.

Cereal producer Kellogg’s is another ‘early adopter’ of upstream robotics, having just bought a top load case packer from UK-based T Freemantle Automation. The purchase of the robotic case packer, which incorporates an ABB six-axis robot, has fully automated the production line. It collates the cereals in a range of configurations and accommodates eight different pack formats and case sizes. The machine can run at a speed of up to 120 packs or 20 cases/min.

Of course, rectangular cereal boxes are relatively easy to handle. The problems arise when handling products that are fragile or irregular in shape. Fruit and vegetables, for example, present particular challenges, which is why this area is not yet very automated.

“We’ve been looking at citrus fruits in flexible nets and don’t feel that robotics lends itself to that area because of the action you need to pick up a net of oranges without damaging it, so we’ve had to come up with a mechanical solution instead for this application,” says Pacepacker’s Wilkinson.

While the use of robots for packing cartons, trays and cases is on the increase, the vast majority of installations are for palletising, particularly in the UK, which lags behind the rest of Europe in its adoption of robots. The International Federation of Robotics estimates the number of robots per 10,000 people employed in UK manufacturing at below 50, and the European average is over 100.

“UK manufacturers understand the benefits a palletising robot can provide in terms of fast and accurate stacking,” says Pacepacker’s Wilkinson, “but for low volume or seasonal lines, new systems have often been cost prohibitive. We found there was a supply chain available for used robots from the automotive industry that are typically a third of the way through their life. We’ve been redeploying these robots for palletising at about half the cost of a new system.”

One UK company that has recently come round to the benefits of robots is Greencore Prepared Meals in Warrington, which has just implemented its first automated palletising line for lasagne products.

The end of line system comprises two Kawasaki FD50 robots with vacuum grippers, conveyors and guarding, and has allowed two operators to be redeployed on less repetitive work.

Greencore’s continuous improvement leader Jo Rice said of the project: “This system has proved to be successful and a strong starting point for us in the use of robotics.”

Another company in the UK that has recently turned palletising from a manual into a robotic operation is cheese maker Barber’s Maryland Farm in Somerset. It is using a KR100-2 PA Kuka robot, designed by integration specialist Güdel, to palletise 30kg boxes of cheese.

The robot is equipped with a bespoke finger gripper tool to pick up the hefty, wooden containers from the roller conveyor and is programmed to stack 60 boxes onto a two-way pallet. Besides replacing the arduous manual packing and stacking process, Barber’s says the installation has improved the reliability of its box strapping operation.

Reductions in footprints coupled with increases in speed mean there are few upstream applications that robots cannot master. In fact, nowadays, the only limitations seem to be in the minds of those people who are unable to look beyond the initial capital cost of robots to the broader benefits they bring.


Fresh potato supplier Greenvale has four robotic systems designed by Abar Automation and incorporating Fanuc robots Abar The end of line system in operation at Greencore Prepared Meals relies on two Kawasaki FD50 robots and has allowed two operators to be moved to less repetitive tasks Kawasaki Barber’s Maryland Farm uses a KR100-2 PA KUKA robot to palletise 30kg boxes of cheese Kuka Pacepacker's Blu-Robots are redeployed from the automatic industry and are sid to offer a cost-effective alternative to new robots Pacepacker The Schubert system in operation at German lemon producer Sizilia packs 100 and 200ml PE bottles into trays in a two-layer configuration Schubert

Abar Abar
Schubert Schubert
Kawasaki Kawasaki
Pacepacker Pacepacker
Kuka Kuka


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