Case study: FruitMasters robot case loading soft fruit in crates, boxes or trays
Automatic packaging of soft fruit in crates, boxes or trays
We recently installed 5 robot case loaders at FruitMasters in Geldermalsen. They were looking to automate this part of the packing line. Until then, this was still done manually. We were asked to optimise this process and make it more efficient.
Robot versus human hands
Besides automatically packing soft fruit into crates/boxes/trays with a robot, the biggest challenge was preventing damage to the product. Can a robotic system handle the product as gently as human hands? The opposite has been proven! In fact, our caseloader handles the product more gently than human hands. The robot's movement in combination with our in-house engineered gripper for picking up and putting down trays is programmed to avoid damage to the product. As no abrupt movements are made and drop heights are avoided, it is possible to smoothly and gently place the trays of soft fruit in a crate/box/tray. This is done in a way that you could never achieve with human hands.
System description caseloaders
An operator places empty crates or boxes in stacks on the infeed conveyor. An automatic destacker then ensures that one box or crate at the time is placed in the lane section of the case loader. In the case loader, a robot fills the crates or boxes, but not before checking the tray label. For this purpose, our case loaders are equipped with a camera scanner. If the label is incorrect, the tray is automatically removed from the line. If the tray has the correct label, it continues towards the robot's pick-up point.
Various programmes and loading programmes
We choose for a Fanuc delta robot to pick up and deposite the packages with soft fruit. These grippers were developed in-house and tailored to Fruitmasters' characteristics and many packaging formats. Changing and controlling the programmes and loading patterns is done via an easy-to-use touchscreen. The case loaders are now used to pick both small trays of, for example, 125 grams and large trays of 400 or 500 grams. The capacity is 75 packs per minute.
Unique in the soft-fruit sector
"It provides us with a more efficient packaging process while maintaining quality" stated FruitMasters
In the summer edition of Primeur, the trade magazine for the AGF sector, extensive attention was paid to this unique robot case loading project realised by Robertpack together with FruitMasters from Geldermalsen. A good example of a great collaboration between two companies.
Read the whole article here "Harde techniek laat zich van zachtste kant zien" (in Dutch)
The advantages of Robertpack for you as customer:
- More than 45 years of experience
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