Combine Traditional Case Packer Frame with Robotic Loading - 400ml Bottles

• This system marries a traditional case packing frame with 4 Fanuc Robotic Arms to load a wrap around case. The product and case move in a continuous fashion. • The product is in pucks and conveys in a single lane to the Brenton infeed at a maximum rate of 320 pucks per minute. The pucks never stop in normal operation to allow for a smoother operation. • There are four robotic heads located inside the machine frame for picking products from the pucks and placing them into the awaiting cases. Each of the Fanuc M-20 robots attend a fixed area of the puck and case conveyors. • Each robot controls the expansion of a specified product tool that is unique to the product type. The EOAT (end-of-arm-tool) adjusts to pick bottled product from a pre-positioned matrix of pucks, (2x3 orientation or 2x2 orientation), then collapses the EOAT to form the smaller matrix size necessary for insertion of the product into pre-positioned cases. • The robots use individual “line tracking” control to accurately follow the motion of the pucks and the opened trays/cases during loading. This ensures the bottles are accurately positioned in the trays/cases and allows the tray/case transport to be continuous motion. • The combined loading processes of the four robots provides a product throughput of up to 320 bottles per minute and a packed case rate of up to 80 cases per minute. • Each robot is equipped with a coupling device (EOAT changer) that is software controlled and allows the robot to automatically switch to an alternate EOAT when a command signal is issued. This allows the automatic changeover process to be initiated by a signal from the case packer PLC. Each robot utilizes FANUC’s Collision Guard option for collision detection rather than mechanical clutch mechanism. • Pick assignment is done by FANUC Pick Pro Software. This option allows a single robot or multiple robots to be taken out of service while allowing the remaining robots to run at a reduced throughput. For more information visit