Flexible Packaging


Soft Gripper brings flexible handling to challenging Pick & Place applications


The new OnRobot Soft Gripper can pick a wide array of irregular shapes and delicate items in food and beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals production, as well as manufacturing or packaging


that need to handle items from eggs to fruit, to bottles or irregular-shaped containers. The flexible OnRobot Soft Gripper uses three


A K


utomation just got easier for food and beverage and other “clean” applications such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals


interchangeable silicon-molded cups in star and four-finger configurations to pick up almost any small object under 2.2 kg with a delicate, precise touch. The electric Soft Gripper is food-grade certified (complies with FDA 21 CFR for non-fatty items and EC


1935/2004) and unlike traditional vacuum grippers, it requires no external air supply, so it can reduce both cost and complexity. “Our new Soft Gripper is challenging existing solutions for picking hard-to-grasp, delicate and odd-sized items,” says CEO of OnRobot, Enrico Krog Iversen. “Unlike proprietary solutions, the Soft Gripper offers seamless integration with most collaborative robots and light industrial robots through our One System Solution.” OnRobot’s award-winning One System


Solution is a platform that provides a unified mechanical and electrical interface between leading robot arms and any OnRobot end-of- arm tooling (EoAT). The One System Solution has been newly expanded to include integration with robots from ABB Robotics and Hanwha Precision Machinery. Now, users of those robots can take advantage of the unified mechanical and electrical interface of any OnRobot product, for easier integration and faster ROI. While the Soft Gripper is ideal for food and beverage applications, it also provides flexible, delicate gripping for manufacturing and packaging.


onrobot.com


Kingsmoor Packaging supports NHS frontline with one-piece PPE visor


ingsmoor Packaging (KPL), has turned its technical expertise to producing personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS staff fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The company has already supplied nearly 100,000 units to various frontline staff, which include Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust. Over the next few weeks, the company is set to increase capacity to over 600,000 visors per week. Given the ongoing supply issues with PPE,


particularly visors, Kingsmoor Packaging decided to help. Being a BRC AA graded plastic food packaging manufacturer, their factory benefits from having in-house tooling and design, operating in tandem with production. By making full use of their design, technical and engineering expertise, they were quickly able to develop a single piece thermoformed face visor to protect frontline NHS staff against Covid-19. The visor is made from clear APET, is low gauge, weighs only 40 grams and incorporates an anti-fog coating to avoid steaming up. Being a single use cost effective solution, the visor is easily mass produced and straightforward to ship and store in large quantities.


32 May 2020


outside of what we would normally expect to run our business, they will be given back to the NHS and other charities.” “The KPL visor was launched on social media last month and the response was overwhelming,” he added. “Through the support of our material supplier, AMB, we were able to produce visor samples very quickly and then start to send them out to all interested parties. We were then introduced to Unilever who were helping to support various Covid-19 projects by bringing people together using their contacts and extensive resources. Working with Unilever and then Liverpool University, we were introduced to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, which is where our visor trials began.” Since initial introductions, Kingsmoor


“Our ambition was to create a product that filled capacity in our factory, whilst helping the NHS with their PPE requirements,” said Kingsmoor Packaging’s managing director, James Hill. “Thereafter if any profits are made


Packaging has refined their design, making it work even better in fast-pace hospital environments. Whilst the firm is continuing to supply frontline workers, talks with the Covid- 19 PPE procurement team to supply the NHS centrally, are progressing.


kingsmoorpackaging.co.uk convertermag.com


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