When Kevin van Casteren received his graduation assignment from Arno van de Ven, it left him scratching his head. The challenge facing Kevin and fellow Mechanical Engineering student Bjorn Bambacht was to package KitKat Chunkys in a fast, effective manner… in a box shaped just like a KitKat Chunky. Kevin, who now works with us as a trainee, explains the task.
The challenge: complex shape, high speed and low costs
“We had to program a robot to package six KitKat Chunky bars in a specific way in a gift box. The idea was that the bars would make a pyramid shape when inserted into the box, with two rows of two bars on the bottom, topped by two single bars, one on top of the other. The cycle time would be 8 seconds per package. All of this would come at the lowest cost possible, since it involved a limited production volume.”
“The trapezium shape of the box was the trickiest part, because we couldn’t just ‘dump’ the bars in; we had to think of another solution. The main challenges were how to get the bars neatly into the box, how to keep the box open while it was being filled, and what the best solution for closing the box would be.”
The solution: fold, slide, close
“We chose to add molds to the conveyor belt that would position the bars correctly. In the meantime, the robot would unfold the packaging, glue one side closed already, and place the box in front of the passing jig. A cylinder would then push the bars into the box, after which the robot would fold the other side of the package to close it.”
“To reduce costs, we used our 3D printer to print several mechanical parts during the test phase. For example, we made the compact gripper with cylinders from polylactide, a bioplastic, instead of steel. This enabled us to do the testing both cheaply and fast.
The added value: great solution, satisfied client
“After completing the testing, we put the set-up into operation in the existing robot cell. We even managed to reduce the cycle time a little, from the 8 seconds we’d been going for to 7.5 seconds. Arno was pleased, the client was impressed, and we’re also happy with and proud of the final result.”
“We demonstrated to the client that we could come up with an excellent solution within challenging frameworks. It was a lot of fun, and very educational to work with robotics. We are now already developing another new production line. While it’s a very different concept, I believe that the KitKat Chunky experience has taught me how to tackle challenges.”
