We go above and beyond for our clients, fueled in part by the innovative prowess of our Vetico Innovation Center. Take project POP, for example, which saw the realization of a custom-made packaging line for the world’s leading chocolate company. Featuring eight Viper robots.
The brief: develop a packaging line for new, upright cardboard packaging with a share-and-reseal function. Each unit contains a fixed number of individually wrapped chocolates, and our client wanted to receive each size in trays of different quantities.
Functional improvements
Engineer Roy Derks took up the challenge. When our client presented the prototype, he identified several areas for improvement right off the bat. Roy: “I saw that deeper creases would produce cleaner folds. We also decided that slightly larger folding flaps, a rotation of the expiration date and minor changes to the adhesive surfaces would work better. In the end, we managed to optimize the packaging in various ways.”
Central role for Viper robots
The next step was the production line. Developing one, that is, because none of the standard production lines available were up for the job. Roy came up with a system in which each Viper robot could perform multiple actions: “They open the closed boxes, fill them with chocolates, close and seal the packaging and put them in the tray, before weighing them to verify that everything has gone according to plan. The Viper robots are an ideal solution.”
Leveraging capacity
While they were developing the line, Roy and his colleagues came across a challenge: the Viper robots could fill 12 boxes a minute, but the elevator chutes had double the capacity. “We decided that it would be a shame not to leverage that capacity,” Roy explains, “So we designed a mirrored robot, which let us double the capacity without making any changes to the blueprint of the line. Although the robots are directly opposite each other, they also run in opposite directions, which means that the input and output positions stay the same.”
High degree of efficiency
Roy is a staunch proponent of the efficiency offered by the robot cell principle. “By themselves, the robots couldn’t handle the desired throughput speed, but the mirrored double configuration allowed us to meet the brief nonetheless. Added to that, the robots are incredibly efficient and all tooling is entirely interchangeable. So if we want to scale up or manufacture a different product on the same line, we can make big changes with minimal engineering.”
Separate magazines
Roy also points out the parallel flat-box feeder: “We manually feed the flat boxes into two separate magazines. When one of the magazines is almost empty, the robot gives a signal and switches to magazine two. Meanwhile, we simply refill the first magazine, which works great to prevent stagnation and downtime.”
Due pride
The POP project is a source of great gratification for Roy. “These innovative challenges can be incredibly demanding, but that’s what we love about them. And we’re not the only ones who are excited about the end product: the customer loves it. The packaging has already been shipped. I have seen the products in stores myself, a real sight to behold! They’re sold all over the world, but there’s only one company that can package them, and that’s us.”
Blog series about the Omron Viper robots:
> Blog: Seventeen Omron Viper robots, destination: Oss
> Blog: The puzzle never ends at the Vetico Innovation Center
