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Erebus

Customer request

The customer asked to incorporate a robot into an existing line that would load products and bugiardins into a horizontal, continuous-motion cartoning machine, taking bottles directly from a filling line.

This work is common in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Usually an operator loads the cartons into the forming machine, which automatically closes them after inserting the products. Many lines, based on semiautomatic machines, require an operator dedicated to loading only: this provides flexibility but incurs additional costs. As automation costs are reduced, it is now possible to replace the operator with a robot for pick-and-place activities, even on less modern plants, so that personnel can be employed in higher value-added activities while maintaining high production performance at competitive costs.

In addition, the robot can act as a bridge between different stages,such as labeling and marking, integrating quality controls through vision, weighing, and barcode reading systems.

Several steps in the loading process need to be automated:

  • Withdrawal of bottles from the filling line

  • Checking the label on the bottle

  • Coupling bottle with informative bugiardine

  • Insertion into the drawers of the cartoner of the bottle and bugiardine set

  • Insertion "on the fly," that is, while the drawers of the cartoner are in motion

  • Coordinated operation of the cartoning machine, robot and upstream line with appropriate signal exchange

Solution

To meet the customer's requirements, Zetapunto mounted a machine based on a 4-axis Scara robot next to the existing cartoning machine and connected it to the upstream line via conveyors. Completing the machine set-up are two bugiardine loaders, capable of working in parallel while maintaining high autonomy during production.

The bottles arrive from the upstream line, and it is immediately checked for the presence of the label. If the product does not comply this is discarded from the line, otherwise it is taken to the robot's work area. At the same time, the bugiardini loaders singularize one bugiardini and bring it to the robot's work area. The robot then picks up the bugiard and bottle together with a pneumatic parallel gripper and positions itself over the cartoner.

Using sensors mounted on board the cartoner, the robot detects the presence of a free drawer and performs product depositing "on the fly," that is, moving along with the drawers of the cartoner. While this operation takes place, a new bottle and bugiardine assembly is prepared by the machine.

The solution is seamlessly integrated with the existing production line and enables higher productivity, lowering the cost of vavoring.

1 ROBOT SCARA

INTEGRATION WITH
THIRD-PARTY MACHINES

PRESENCE CONTROL
LABEL AND DISCARD

PRODUCTIVITY
800 PIECES/HOUR

CONFORMING TO.
INDUSTRY 4.0

ASSISTANCE
BY REMOTE

Strengths

  • Integration with pre-existing line (revamping)
  • Low contamination: there are no manual steps from the time the bottle is filled to the closing of the case in which it is contained
  • Ease of use: changeover is managed through recipes loaded on the machine
  • The personnel are the same as those who previously performed the processing manually
  • Possible subsequent cell expansions

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