Automation Cobots Offer Flexibility for Production and Packaging Process

Related Vendors

Gerhard Schubert GmbH - Verpackungsmaschinen

TURCK GmbH

Italvacuum, Srl

Schubert has introduced the tog.519 cobot which was exhibited for the first time at the recently held Interpack show. The cobot is capable of automating pick & place tasks in the infeed as well as offers great flexibility to the production and packaging process.

The tog.519 cobot from Schubert is ready for series production. And, for the very first time at this year’s interpack, the packaging machine manufacturer showed the unimagined possibilities that consumer goods manufacturers can now exploit with this fast and simple automation solution. Three cobots were presented in action, two of them on a filling machine for cosmetics manufacturer Börlind.

Automation processes to package food, confectionery, cosmetics and similar products have so far mostly been limited to the packaging machine itself. The infeed, however, is often done manually, as it can rarely be handled cost-effectively by machine. With the powerful and fast tog.519 cobot, the firm has now not only automated pick & place tasks in the infeed, but also ushered in a whole new level of flexibility to the production and packaging process, mentions the company.

Highly flexible and extremely versatile – even in combination with machines from other manufacturers

The integrated systems – from the robot arm through the control system and image processing all the way to the cooling and protective cell – make the cobots entirely autonomous and mobile. According to the company, they can be used very effectively to close automation gaps at different and ever-changing points along the production process. They can then either be free-standing, placed in a protection cell or combined to form an entire cobot line. Their range of applications is hugely diverse.

For example, the tog.519 can load a flow-wrapping machine’s infeed chains from a bin, pick up bottles for a filling machine from the conveyor and orient them correctly, pick up a wide variety of unsorted products and place them into cartons, or even assemble mixed packs. The cobots not only works with Schubert machines, but also with third-party systems and even robots from other manufacturers. The cobot will also be of great interest to integrators, because the firm enables the purchase of system components, such as AI-supported image processing, individually, opines the firm.

An all-new level of automation for manufacturers

For manufacturers, for example in the fast-moving food or cosmetics industry, who constantly need to release new products onto the market and adapt packaging formats, the cobots now offer a very straightforward and highly variable solution for the entire packaging process. The tog.519 can be deployed virtually wherever needed, depending on the current requirements and situation, and provide real support to make automation cost-effective, to keep production running, to fill in for missing skilled workers, to compensate for machine stops or to quickly introduce new formats, shares the company. The cobot’s extraordinary versatility opens up entirely new opportunities for companies to flexibly automate their packaging processes and raise their existing production to an all-new level.

AI-supported image processing ensures extremely easy operation

An AI-supported image processing system developed by the firm is what makes the cobots so flexible and easy to operate. It recognizes both the products as they are picked up and the environment in which they are to be placed. The cobots’ neural network is so extensively trained that the robots can immediately process new products from the same product group, adds the company. For example, pouches (sachets, flowpacks, stand-up pouches, sealed-rim pouches, etc.) in different sizes or bottles in different shapes. The AI’s tolerance is conceived to accept variable sizes, materials, surfaces or thicknesses within a product group. As a result, virtually no teach-in or start-up process is required. Once commissioned, the Schubert cobots immediately get to work – at top performance. This is how they handle pick & place applications with a variety of lightweight products at up to 90 cycles per minute. Only the tool has to be matched to the product, elaborates the company. To this end, Schubert provides its customers with a wide range of individually designed robot tools, some of which they can

even produce themselves using 3D printing.

High-performance infeed of packaging components

The firm has designed a filling line for natural cosmetics manufacturer Börlind, the feeding of which is handled by three tog.519 cobots, two of which were in action at the cosmetics line at this year’s interpack. In the machine, glass jars, glass bottles or plastic bottles are filled with cosmetics and sealed with different pump systems and lids. The cobots pick up the unsorted packaging components or, alternatively, sorted carton trays and place them into the line’s infeed. They can handle all packaging parts without requiring any programming or start-up phase. In combination with the packaging line, this enables a fully automated and extremely flexible packaging process for cosmetic products – a huge step towards efficiency and cost-effectiveness for manufacturers, concludes the firm.

(ID:49629570)