The rise of the robots

In many cases, modern packaging lines could not achieve their targeted output and efficiencies without the use of robotic devices to deliver accurate and repeatable pick and place, material handling or palletising functions. Yet, compared with other European, US and even Asian markets, the take-up of robots within the UK lags behind the others.

The good news is that the past three years has seen a 300% rise in the demand for industrial robots at UK food and drink manufacturers. However this is still well behind the same industries in many parts of Europe, where take-up rates are above 240 robots per 10,000 workers – compared to the UK’s 52 robots per 10,000 workers.

According to figures for 2011 issued recently by the British Automation and Robot Association (BARA), sales increased across all UK industries using robots by an impressive 68%. But this masks a worrying fact – that deliveries to food and drink companies fell by 8% and to pharmaceutical companies by a staggering 76%. The entire increase was accounted for by automotive industry purchases.

Mike Wilson, chairman of BARA, remains upbeat about the prospects: “Currently, over 100 companies are making use of the Government funded free automation review open to any UK manufacturer.” He hopes this will lead to an enhanced take-up of robotic applications in the next two years.

However, this optimism masks a stubborn underlying trend in most UK primary packagers, particularly medium sized food and drink producers, where justin-time demands and short batch runs can deter investment in ‘expensive’ robots.

The drop in pharmaceutical robot sales may be explained by over-capacity in some production facilities and by a lack of growth generally.

Partnerships mean progress

If the outlook appears uncertain there are plenty of robot suppliers and packaging machine manufacturers taking the initiative to create more awareness of the benefits of robots in an automated line and showing the advantages of a fully integrated machine incorporating robotic systems.

One such is the new partnership between Endoline Machinery and ABB Robotics who are set to launch complete packaging assembly lines with robotic pick and place systems.

The ABB robot will form an integral part of the new packaging module and will be built into an Endoline conveyor system. The conveyor will feed from a high-speed case erector and into a case sealer (the choice of model of Endoline machine will be determined, based upon the individual customer’s needs) highlighting the diversity of this project, say the companies.

Alan Spreckley, channel partner manager at ABB Robotics explained: “We have a number of world class machinery OEMs in our Global Partner Programme and find combining our expertise with theirs is a great way to develop robotic applications.”

Endoline has also launched another robotic machine, the Spider palletising robot, which is a servo driven gantry robot built with three or four axes with a compact footprint and ability to palletise boxes, crates, buckets, bags or other packed goods from one or multiple lines. Operated by interpolated controls the heavy-duty linear axes move like spiders, enabling the machine to reach high speeds of up to 10 cycles/min.

Crucial, says the company, is a fast gripper changing system – from vacuum gripper to a clamping gripper – making the Spider suitable for a variety of sectors, including food and drink, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

Cross-over technology reduces costs

Proving that robots are almost infinitely adaptable, Pacepacker has just installed a second hand Blu-Robot, previously used in the automotive sector, as part of a new line packing potatoes into bags and boxes at Preva Produce’s new packing plant in Snetterton, Norfolk, UK.

The turnkey installation, designed by Pacepacker, for bagging and palletising salad potatoes in 10-25kg sacks for the wholesale food market, utilises a Blu-Robot, fitted with suction cups as well as gripper arms from ABB, so that it can easily switch between stacking sacks and boxes, dependent on the product option selected from a pre-programmed list of recipes.

“We wanted a versatile robotic palletising system that would sit between a bagging line and a box packing line, and would quickly switch between the two types of packing style dependent on market demands,” says Preva Produce managing director Ian Anderson. “Purchasing a preowned robot saved half the cost of a new system and we should see a return on our investment in just over three years.”

The robot is approximately 35% of the way through its expected 100,000 operational hour lifespan and presents low production and seasonal fresh produce packers with an affordable option, claims Pacepacker.

Designed for packing lines

Some robot suppliers, however, are taking a more strategic approach to increasing the use of robots in the packaging sector. TM Robotics (Europe), which supplies Toshiba Machine systems, has developed a range of Scara robots, the THL, to set “new benchmarks” for price performance, mass and low energy consumption.

Nigel Smith, managing director at TM Robotics explains: “In a quest to build a better mousetrap we took a long hard look at how to create a new breed of Scara robots to deliver a host of benefits while taking a chunk of costs out of the equation.

“THL is not simply a low cost, lightweight alternative. It is a radical new design, able to marry low mass and low inertia with the necessary rigidity from which high accuracy is attained,” he adds.

By reducing mass, thanks mainly to use of cast aluminium mechanical components that have a series of ribbed sections to achieve the necessary rigidity, smaller motors and simplified gearboxes can be used, which helps to reduce both power consumption and price.

“The trick is to get the optimum balance between all the mitigating factors to ensure none of the machine’s performance is conceded,” says Smith.

As a result the robot is 50% lighter than other Toshiba Machine robots and uses 50% less power, claims the company. The reduced weight also enables the robot to be installed with less robust supports, with significantly less need for vibration suppression – a major advantage for systems integrators. THL is available in 500, 600 and 700mm versions and has four axes of movement including 360° rotational. Cycle time with a 2kg payload is 0.45sec (700mm is 0.95sec).

Fully integrated machines

One company that has fully embraced the complete integration of robotics into its machines is long-time proponent Gerhard Schubert. One of the latest machines to be developed, a filling and packing line, has a number of robotic features.

The line provides everything required to fill products into bottles, tubes, cans and bags, using volume, weight and count technology, says Schubert. Moving from one processing station to the next, the line goes from cleaning, filling, closing, labelling and finally packing. Once the product is loaded, it is not released until it is packed into the shipping box and placed on to the shipping tray or pallet.

The containers are bulk fed or sorted from shipping cartons, inspected by a vision system and placed onto transmodules by pick-and-place robots. Self-adhesive labels are applied by a TLM F3 robot, before the boxes or trays are erected, filled, closed, labelled and placed directly onto pallets by more pick-and-place robots.

“Schubert has recognised the growing demand for integrating a filling application within its automated packing lines,” says Mark Stepney, operations director at Schubert UK. “It will be a feature of our stand at the [September] PPMA Show so visitors can see the new machine’s capabilities and its wide range of benefits.”

Another machine maker with a completely integrated robotic programme is Cama Group. The company has recently developed a loading unit which can incorporate up to four of its own Delta Triaflex robots. These are guided by a vision system to recognise different products, which are picked up by one of the four Deltas for loading either in their final pack or into the infeed of another packaging machine. The system, engineered in cooperation with Bosch-Rexroth, is able, through one single axis control, to manage up to four of the Triaflex four-axis robots, making 16 axes in total.

Previous systems available in the market needed each robot to be equipped with its own axis control to allow communication between the single robotic units and the product counting system.

This multi Delta robots loading unit can be combined with primary packaging systems or to other packaging machines, so that turnkey solutions can be offered to the customer, according to the company.

Total robotic solutions

Of course the ultimate solution is a completely robotic packing line, which requires no human input at all. This was ably demonstrated at the recent Anuga Foodtec exhibition in Frankfurt where systems integrator K-Robotix built and operated a complete fresh meat packing line during the show.

In conjunction with several machine partners, including Fanuc and TM Robotics, the line highlighted the enhanced safety and hygiene capabilities as well as the flexibility that can be achieved by taking a modular approach to the construction. K-Robotix says each module can be re-configured to suit individual requirements without affecting the overall performance in most cases.

Increasing the robotic footprint

So it seems that already there is plenty of technology available to choose from and that many of the concerns with integrating robots into quite moderate output production lines are more apparent than real.

BARA has recently been allocated £600,000 by the UK Government to run an automated manufacturing awareness programme. The primary objective is to help UK manufacturers increase their competitive edge and gain from the benefits that automation offers, including increased productivity, reduced waste and greater profitability.

Although the programme primarily looks to assist SMEs throughout all manufacturing sectors within the UK, larger companies with limited knowledge of and expertise in automation are also eligible. The new lightweight THL range from Toshiba A Toshiba SCARA handling filled yogurt pots

Support will be offered in two stages. The first is a strategic review of their manufacturing operation, commencing with an audit aiming to identify opportunities to improve production through automation, followed by a recommendation report presented at a review meeting. The second stage will provide a more detailed intervention which will provide the client manufacturer with the knowledge and information required to plan and successfully implement the automation solution.

As the “greatest ignorance of robots exists at SME level”, according to one leading supplier, this programme is well targeted. However no-one is under-estimating the challenge; to take full advantage of robots the vision and control systems also need to be upgraded to match the performance levels required.

Nigel Smith of TM Robotics takes up that challenge: “Markets for robots continue to demand price reduction, speed and accuracy improvements, and easier integration. This is particularly true in the packaging sector where robots often integrate with other fixed automation, such as wrappers and cartoners. New robot designs are now emerging to meet those needs.”

If robots improve competitiveness on most lines, which is demonstrably the case, then manufacturers in the UK must certainly be ready to use them.

Robots getting to grips with meat at Anuga Foodtec Anuga Foodtec A pre-owned Blu-Robot packs potatoes at Preva Produce Blu-Robot Endoline case erector with ABB robot working in tandem Endoline The Spider palletising robot Spider Delta robots work in unison on the CAMA loading unit CAMA Robots integrated into new Schubert filling line Schubert filling line The new lightweight THL range from Toshiba Toshiba A Toshiba SCARA handling filled yogurt pots SCARA