Protecting Product Integrity with Food Packaging Robots

Some­times it can be a has­sle to remove the over-wrap and pack­ag­ing food prod­ucts come in, but the pack­ages are there for cus­tomers’ safe­ty and sat­is­fac­tion. Robots have auto­mat­ed the food pack­ag­ing process, mak­ing it a more effi­cient and reli­able process. Food pack­ag­ing robots are flex­i­ble enough to han­dle a wide vari­ety of pack­ag­ing, and they gen­er­al­ly have low main­te­nance require­ments, so they can repeat the motion with reli­a­bil­i­ty and speed. Robots in the food and bev­er­age indus­try are ben­e­fi­cial for tra­di­tion­al appli­ca­tions like pick­ing, pack­ing, and pal­letiz­ing, and can even be used for meat cut­ting and bev­er­age dis­pens­ing. Con­vert­ing to an auto­mat­ed pack­ag­ing sys­tem cuts costs, increas­es pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and address­es prod­uct integri­ty con­cerns and floor space limitations.

Robots’ pack­ing of food can be described in two process­es: pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary pack­ag­ing. Pri­ma­ry pack­ag­ing occurs when the robot places foods into the first wrap­per or lay­er of pack­ag­ing. The need for quick out­put in pri­ma­ry pack­ag­ing is immense, and robots are up to the task. Sec­ondary pack­ag­ing occurs when the robot inserts the pri­ma­ry wrapped prod­uct into the next lay­er of pack­ag­ing, like a case or carton. 

Robot Pack­ag­ing, LLC offers both ver­ti­cal and hor­i­zon­tal load­ing sys­tems with the abil­i­ty to load a vari­ety of pack­aged prod­ucts into con­tain­ers like cas­es, crates, trays, or totes. The high-speed, com­pact robots can also inspect cas­es and prod­ucts, can sort and dis­trib­ute prod­ucts, and can per­form cut­ting and case coding.

Fanuc​’s M‑710iC/50H robot is an ide­al solu­tion for the food and bev­er­age indus­try. It is a 5‑axis mod­el that offers a large work enve­lope and a com­pact size for work in small places. The M‑710iC/​50H is equipped with iRVi­sion line track­ing which allows it to track and pick three ran­dom­ly ori­ent­ed cased prod­ucts at a time. It fea­tures enclosed motors and cables, and it has a 50kg payload.

Motoman offers the fol­low­ing pack­ag­ing robots: SV035, SV3, SCARA, UP20, and HP6.

KUKA offers the KR 40 PA, KR 50 PA, KR 100 – 2 PA, KR 180-2PA, and KR 150 pack­ag­ing models.

Robots​.com pro­vides Inte­gra­tion-Ready Fanuc, Motoman, ABB, and KUKA robots to include their food pack­ag­ing robots. If you are inter­est­ed in acquir­ing one of these robots or aren’t sure where to start, con­tact us online or call 877−762−6881.