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Robotic Machine Infeeds Keep Pace with High Speed Packaging Equipment
FANUC M-430iA Robot Loading Diagnostic Test Kits into the Continuous Motion Conveyor Infeed on a Poucher Machine
Hard Automation Used to Handle Test Kits During Inspection
Introduction: Today's High Speed Packaging Equipment Ongoing demands by manufacturers for faster production speeds, greater flexibility, and faster return on investment (ROI) continue to shape the designs of today's high speed packaging machines. Innovations such as servos, advanced controls, and multi-axis robots have allowed machinery designers to create systems that can handle the higher speeds required. However, these machines can operate only as fast as their product infeeds, especially when packaging multiple products per package. Infeed speeds can affect productivity in both primary and secondary packaging scenarios. Infeeds that fail to keep pace with the equipment's production capabilities create costly unscheduled downtime while the machine waits for product, and speed is not the only concern. Improper infeeding will cause a high speed packaging machine to jam, which stops the system and potentially causes damage to the product or the machine. This is especially true of thermoformers (that form, fill and seal product blisters) and blister packaging machines (that pull pre-formed blisters from a magazine before filling and sealing). Today, as much as 80% of installed thermoformers and blister packaging machines are manually loaded. To give an example of the expense that manual loading incurs, during a routine process evaluation, ESS Technologies, Inc., a designer, manufacturer and integrator of high speed packaging lines, reviewed a process for a prospective customer that required three personnel, on three shifts to orient and manually load product into a blister packaging machine at a rate of 10-14 cycles per minute. The total cost of personnel salary, machine downtime due to misfed product, and employee absenteeism caused by repetitive-motion injuries placed the estimated annual cost of operation at around $225, 000 per machine. Automated infeed systems offer a solution for maintaining fast and accurate product infeeding while reducing overhead expenses, such as those listed above. First-generation automated equipment used fixed or “hard” automation technology, but today, the availability of affordable, flexible robotic automation systems allows packaging line designers to create high speed systems for machine infeeds. The advantages become clear as one compares hard and robotic automation. Hard Automation vs. Robotics Hard automation refers to a sequence of processes and movements that are determined by the equipment, which has been designed to perform a single function, usually for a single product. This specialized design can come with a high cost, and the system is limited to handling only the product for which it was designed. The higher equipment cost associated with hard automation make this solution viable for products made in large volume or products that have a long shelf life and little chance of being
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