When a large Spanish food and drink company was working to automate its manual palletizing process, it feared production would be impacted by safety features that force robotic palletizing arms to shut down when human workers are nearby. By installing a specialized robot and divider, the company was able to maintain constant production while increasing from six cartons palletized per minute to 160.
Operators had been working close to the main conveyor that transported cartons onto short out-feed conveyors. Even with robotic palletizers, a human would still be required to maintain a stock of empty pallets and remove full ones. However, during the design phase the company realized that with the short conveyors the robots would not be allowed to move when the operators were working with the pallets.
If the arm halted each time an operator entered the fenced-in area to load more empty pallets, there would be an unacceptable risk that the pick points would fill up and cartons would overflow. Instead, the company designed a palletizing cell in two sections, with a fixed fence in the middle and two sliding doors. The robot works at a reduced speed when humans are in the neighboring compartment, is blocked from retrieving a pallet if a human is nearby, and will activate an emergency stop in the event a human trips a light sensor.
Instead of one manual operator at each of 16 cells, there is now only one operator for every four cells, which also take up less floor space. Instead of six cartons per minute with the manual process, each cell now produces 110, with plans to increase that speed to 160.
ABB Robotics
248-391-8622
http://www.abb.com/products/robotics
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