Automatic control of the hottest packaging 1

Automatic control of packaging

the future of packaging can be predicted, that is, robots. Industrial robots are very suitable for repetitive or dangerous work. If the robot is more efficient and the use cost is further reduced, more people will choose to use it because of its flexible and reliable advantages. The robot will replace many traditional equipment and become an important helper in the industrial field

in terms of numbers, the number of robots, especially in the field of packaging, has increased very fast. In 2004, the total number of robots used for packaging and stacking increased by 50% compared with 2003, while the growth rate of the entire robot industry was 20%

"packers need to switch flexibly and quickly between different packaging tasks." Jeff B, vice president of marketing and human resources of the robot industry association, is small and flexible. Urnstein said, "once you use robots, you will realize its benefits, and gradually use more and more."

"this market has great potential," said Stuart coo, President of Langen packaging, after tightening the upper and lower jaws. "In the past few years, about 1/3 of the work tasks undertaken by traditional equipment have been replaced by robots."

robots are popular mainly because of their flexibility. Packers need to meet different requirements of consumers. Robots can better adapt to different sizes and shapes of packaging than traditional packaging equipment. For example, a potato chip production line that produces two packaging quantities only needs a robot to complete the packaging task, and the operator only needs to adjust the gripper. Traditional equipment requires more parts adjustment

"first of all, food manufacturers need this kind of robot with high flexibility." L.P. musunur, manager of stacking and Packaging Engineering Department of FANUC robotics, said, "in addition, compared with ordinary flexible packaging bag equipment, the cost of this robot has been within the user's affordable range, with flexible packaging and reliable operation."

"if you need to mix several different products in the same package, the advantages of robots can be better reflected." Tim derosett, vice president of adept technology, said, "in the past, you might repeat the same product for weeks or even months without making any adjustments to the device. Now, you need to change it in a few hours. With a flexible robot, the switching process is greatly simplified, a few gadgets, and then adjust the software, and the whole process is completed."

in stacking, the advantages of robots are also very obvious. For example, beverage manufacturers currently use 36 "X36" palletizing, while Wal Mart's standard is 48 "x48". As a result, many beverages must be re stacked in the sales center, otherwise they cannot meet the requirements of retailers

assets that can be adjusted repeatedly

flexibility is crucial for users who use traditional stacking equipment, because their equipment can only complete stacking of a single size. Sal Khan, President of aidco international, said, "when they found that robots can meet their requirements for stability, flexibility and speed, they immediately decided to use robots."

"this decisive decision is mainly because robots are a repeatable enterprise asset for them." Cooper said, "with the machine, this is the graphene machine, which can process products on the same production line. Not only that, it can also move the robot to other production lines."

this change benefits from flexible robot software. Nowadays, the reassembly of robots is very fast to create products that meet the current and future performance requirements, without mastering complex programming technology

at present, the progress of robot software is reflected in offline setting and simulation. In the past, robots may need hours to "learn" the work they want to complete, but now they can complete the learning process offline and officially join the work within a few hours

"now, we can provide models of various devices. Users can use these models to set up and automatically create various programs." Carl Traynor, senior director of marketing at Motoman, said, "all the details of the model are exactly the same as the robot."

(to be continued)