ABB Robots Save Valentine's Day

Valen­tine Con­ver­sa­tion hearts are an icon­ic can­dy, known to adults and chil­dren, alike. They were cre­at­ed by NEC­CO, the New Eng­land Con­fec­tionery Com­pa­ny. NEC­CO is one of the old­est can­dy com­pa­nies in the Unit­ed States, dat­ing back to 1847. To con­tin­ue suc­cess­ful­ly and com­pet­i­tive­ly pro­duc­ing their deli­cious can­dy for mil­lions of peo­ple, NEC­CO decid­ed to update their process with a robot­ic solu­tion. They sought an auto­mat­ed solu­tion that would incor­po­rate robots into the pack­ag­ing process to help elim­i­nate work in process and the hand-feed­ing of box­es on the pack line. Fur­ther­more, they want­ed some­thing that was flex­i­ble enough to accom­mo­date future pro­duc­tion needs and var­ied pack­ag­ing configurations.

NEC­CO turned to ABB to help stream­line their labor-inten­sive and time-con­sum­ing process for box­ing their famous Valen­tine Con­ver­sa­tion can­dy hearts. NECOO’s indus­tri­al engi­neer­ing man­ag­er, Frank Rus­so, said ​“We need­ed to find a way to cre­ate a con­tin­u­ous process that would reduce han­dling by elim­i­nat­ing work in process and hand feed­ing box­es on the pack line.”

ABB answered the call with two ABB IRB 340 SA (wash-down ver­sion) Flex­Pick­ers in one line. The robots made the car­ton fill­ing and pack­ag­ing a con­tin­u­ous process as the hearts were filled on a ver­ti­cal car­ton­er. One-ounce heart box­es were moved from the car­ton­er to a con­vey­or that feeds the robots. The sys­tem then placed four box­es onto a belt, which fed the shrink wrap­per. The box­es were ori­ent­ed depend­ing on the type of wrap used, shrink wrap or flow-wrapped hang­ing bags. Then, con­vey­ors were used to help accu­mu­late, cre­ate a buffer, and con­trol the flow from the car­ton­er to the wrap­pers. The box­es were metered to help ensure a con­sis­tent gap was cre­at­ed as they were trans­port­ed from the car­ton­er to the robot cells.

The ABB IRB 340 robots then pick up box­es in groups of 3 – 4, depend­ing on the run, and place box­es on the wrapper’s in-feed con­vey­or in the desired con­fig­u­ra­tion. These robots were able to pro­vide flex­i­bil­i­ty for future pro­duc­tion needs, includ­ing dif­fer­ent pack­ing con­fig­u­ra­tions, when necessary.

Capa­ble of 150 picks per minute, this par­al­lel-arm Delta robot is sure to improve a vari­ety of pick and place appli­ca­tions. The wash­able ver­sion of the ABB IRB 340 IRC5 Delta robot has an IP67 pro­tec­tion rat­ing. It is built to with­stand clean­ing with a low-pres­sure appli­ca­tion of mild deter­gent. ABB used cor­ro­sion-resis­tant mate­ri­als and spe­cial paint and sealed cov­ers to pro­tect this robot. The fourth axis of the IRB 340SA has slide bear­ings to facil­i­tate more thor­ough spray-downs. For safe­ty, there are dou­ble cir­cuits with super­vi­sion, e‑stops, 3‑position enabling device and oth­er safe­ty functions.

Rus­so stat­ed that, indeed, the pro­duc­tion line with the two IRB 340 robots has ​“far exceed­ed their expec­ta­tions and have cre­at­ed an enor­mous ben­e­fit.” The ABB robots have reduced labor costs and increased through­put. Addi­tion­al­ly, NEC­CO can make sim­ple changes to the robots’ pro­gram­ming to accom­mo­date new pack­ag­ing sizes.

NEC­CO is ready to con­tin­ue its rich his­to­ry of can­dy mak­ing and ensure that con­ver­sa­tion hearts remain a Valentine’s Day sta­ple for many years to come. Why set­tle for a box of can­dy hearts when you can have a machine that could help you pro­duces mil­lions of box­es of can­dy hearts? This Valentine’s Day, show your appre­ci­a­tion for your loved ones, and buy them a robot from Robots​.com!

Con­tact Robots​.com experts to dis­cuss the wide range of new and refur­bished robots avail­able for pur­chase. Experts can be reached online or by phone at 877−762−6881.