FEATURE HANDLING & STORAGE
PALLETISING ROBOT helps boost productivity by 15-20%
To ensure the physical wellbeing of its workforce a UK pulse processor replaced manual handling operations with a fully automated packing and palletising line with FANUC robots
productivity and more efficient palletising of heavy payloads. “In designing the M410iC/185 FANUC’s
engineers have harnessed the latest advancements in servo motors and drives to design a robot arm that is quite simply best in its class on every front: speed, payload, energy-efficiency and reach,” says Paul Wilkinson, business development manager at Pacepacker Services. “We have absolute confidence that this robot will continue to exceed Askew & Barrett’s performance expectations and prove completely reliable for years to come.” The robot was installed in a dual cell
he first FANUC M410iC/185 universal palletising robot has been installed in the UK at pulse processor Askew & Barrett where it has helped to boost productivity by 15-20% and eliminated a potential health and safety risk factor by automating a manual palletising operation. Askew & Barrett sources pulses from key agricultural merchants and then sorts, cleans and grades them at its processing plant in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. The pulses are bagged into 12.5kg and 25kg paper sacks and 25kg woven polypropylene (WPP) sacks before being palletised and transported to food manufacturers and retailers at home and abroad.
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DEMANDING MANUAL HANDLING Prior to investing in the new generation FANUC palletising robot Askew & Barrett used manpower to stack the sacks onto pallets. The problem was that in order to keep up with demand during busy periods Askew & Barrett was having to operate the line 24 hours a day, six days a week. Although the working day was split into either two 12-hour or three eight-hour shifts, this was still physically demanding work and the company didn’t
30 OCTOBER 2015 | FACTORY EQUIPMENT
want to continue exposing its staff to that level of manual handling. “It takes it out of you, standing at the end of the line stacking sacks onto a pallet,” says production and warehouse manager Chris Askew. “We wanted to take steps to ensure the physical wellbeing of our employees.” Askew & Barrett engaged FANUC palletising integrator Pacepacker Services to design a fully automated packing and palletising line that would reduce manual handling and increase productivity.
HIGH RELIABILITY For the palletising element Pacepacker specified FANUC’s new M410iC/185, the first of a new generation of Japanese- engineered palletising robots that combines FANUC’s proven 99.99% reliability record with tangible improvements in performance, allowing users across a range of industries to palletise heavier loads faster and stack pallets higher. FANUC recommended this model on account of its high cycling speed - the robot is capable of 1700 cycles per minute - and 185g payload. This combination results in heightened
The FANUC M410iC/185 universal palletising robot at Askew and Barrett boosting productivity by15-20%
configuration for maximum performance and it is here that the M410iC/185’s compact 610 x 806mm footprint and extended reach capabilities come into play. In a dual cell configuration the robot is sited so that it can swivel between two individually accessible pallet loading positions. This means that as soon as the robot has finished palletising a stack it starts to palletise on the other pallet in the cell.
TIME-EFFICIENT CONFIGURATION “This is an extremely time-efficient configuration as the robot is always in use; it can start loading a new pallet while the full pallet is being transported to the delivery area,” explains FANUC UK technical manager Darren Whittall. “The M410iC/185 is ideal for dual cell
installations owing to is small footprint and reach of 2.4m; higher than any other robot in the same class which enables it to service two cells effortlessly.” The M410iC/185 which was installed in February this year has increased palletising speed to 10 bags per minute and enabled the company to reduce the working week from six days to five without laying anyone off; staff have been redeployed to less physical tasks. Chris Askew says bags are now stacked
more consistently onto pallets allowing for “safer storage within our warehouse and easier loading into containers.”
FANUC UK T: 02476 518415
www.fanuc.eu
/ FACTORYEQUIPMENT
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