The igus robot has been included in a concept that has been designed specifically for the emerging cannabis industry. The line concept is to package ‘joints’ into trays of 3 or 5 units, seal the tray (with a foil heat seal) and place the trays into cardboard cartons ready for final packaging.
The robot is placed in line with other packaging machinery, downstream from CME’s making machine, the Autocone. The robot will be fitted with a stepper or servo motor for a 4th axis of movement and a gripper assembly for picking one joint at a time.
The robot communicates with a camera vision system to ensure effective picking of joints from the conveyor belt and subsequent placement into final trays.
Problem:
Our client was looking for line machinery to package the final product which has been produced by CME’s Autocone. The product arrives at the picking station in any orientation, it is orientated and placed in a plastic tray. The window for picking, placing and orientating is 2 seconds.
Currently the product is manually picked and placed into the respective carton ready for packaging. This is time- consuming, labour intensive and has a risk of error and inconsistency of product placement. The current process also requires training for the staff and coverage for staff absences.
Solution:
Through automation of the process, cost and time savings have been delivered enabling an increase in the overall efficiency of the production line. These savings are due to the consistency and speed of product placement and a reduction of placement errors. All of which has helped ensure continued operation with minimal interruptions.
Further savings are made by the removal of manual handling, as this has led to a reduction in ongoing training for personnel, and the choice of the igus robot, which when compared to an alternative SCARA robot equivalent, provides a further cost saving estimated at £6k per unit.
