What have been the greatest improvements when it comes to end-of-arm tooling, end effectors and the picking and placement of delicate products like baked goods? Please walk us through some of the specific advancements in hardware and software technology.
The two greatest improvements in picking and placement technology are:
1) The use of Soft Robotics pneumatic Grippers which are delicate on products and triggered to pick and lift products based on a certain amount of grip pressure, just like a human hand. These End Effector Grippers allow for a variance in product sizes that is much greater than typical mechanical grippers used in the past.
2) The use of 3-D Vision Camera Systems that have become much less expensive and allow for Robotic Systems to better determine if a product is within the proper specs.
How can bakers and snack producers select which types of end effectors are best for packaging their products? How does an end-of-tool device for VFFS packing a snack bar differ from picking and placing a croissant or a bulkier product like a ciabatta roll? Please walk us through a checklist or the decision-making process.
Typically, the End Effector choice is a collaboration between the Customer and the robotic packaging machinery manufacturer based on the product characteristics and maintenance requirements to provide the best overall solution for the project. In some cases, like with many snack bars, the End-Effector can be as simple as a standard set of bellowed suction cups linked with a standard filtering system as snack bars typically don’t generate a lot of crumbs to deal with and are typically not very porous. However, other items like croissants and rolls require more customized End-Effector solutions due to their variable sizing and high degree of crumbs or oil that can lead to maintenance requirements that a plant may not have capacity to deal with.
How versatile are end effectors on packaging lines where there are multiple sizes or varieties of products?
This is a difficult question due to the type of End-Effector that can be used for a specific product and customer’s needs. However, the Soft Robotics style Gripper End-Effectors are very versatile for products that are somewhat close in size range, but still have size limitations. So, it is likely that the client may need a “family” of End-Effector Grippers for a large range of product sizes. But note that these Grippers are typically very quickly changed out, without the use of tools, within a matter of seconds.
How are end effectors and the process different for picking and placing products before they are packaged and for loading them into trays, cartons or case packing them? What other packaging criteria or processing factors affect the type of end effectors?
The process for picking and placing “primary” products (naked product not in a package) typically requires greater product inspection for accepting good products and rejecting bad products than those that are already packaged (such as products already in a wrapper). With pre-packaged “secondary” products inspection is typically simply based on the size of the product package to make sure it is not connected to another package or is too large to fit where it is supposed to be placed. With naked “primary” products, you may also be looking for color variations or protrusions or broken sections on the products, that may not be acceptable to the client, as well as size. Regarding the End-Effector choice, the secondary package that the primary product is being packed into also plays a role in choosing the best End-Effector. For instance, if loading a plastic tray, the position where the products are to be placed may be a tight-fitting pocket within the tray, so the End-Effector needs to be designed to keep the product very stable for proper positioning and may be designed to allow the tool to fit down inside the pocket if products are to be stacked inside the pockets. With carton or case loading, generally the fit of product is a bit looser and doesn’t require as much customization.
From an overall turnkey standpoint, how have robotics been more effectively integrated into packaging systems?
Vision Guided Robotic Packaging Systems have often helped make automated packaging systems become reality as they can do some basic product inspection (that typically is done by humans) and typically they can also do the packaging in a very small area due to their ability to accept randomly oriented products and correctly package them. Where traditional packaging systems typically require oriented and singulated products that may not be possible in a specific plant location due to the large amount of space it would take to physically do that. Also, based on the characteristics of the products, such as very soft products (i.e. bags of products), many products can be very, very difficult to orient and singulate making a packaging automation almost impossible using traditional non-robotic packaging systems.