ROBOTICS
CRACKING THE NUT
Macadamias are famously the world’s toughest nut to crack. Requiring an extraordinary 300 pounds per square inch of pressure, it is unusual to buy these tough nuts without their shells. Happy Nut by Freedom Fresh Australia is among the exceptions. The Australia-based processing company supplies premium macadamias with a bespoke ‘key’ to crack the nut. Here’s how the business used robotics from Shibaura Machine to automate the picking-and-placing of keys into their macadamia nut packaging.
The challenge the business faced was automating the placement of the keys into bags during the filling process. The manual
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reedom Fresh has long supplied its Happy Nut brand with a specially designed metal key. The macadamia nuts are cleverly roasted with a slit sawed into the shell, meaning customers can crack them open easily using the tool provided.
method was cumbersome and inefficient. It involving a worker standing on a ladder for prolonged periods of time and physically placing a key into each bag.
Shifting from manual to automated processing was a no brainer. The manual task was repetitive and posed obvious safety risks - that is not to mention the monotonous nature of placing up to 20,000 keys into bags each day. The goal of the automation project was clear: create a system that would both crack the problem of manual labour
inefficiency and improve safety. The requirements included automatic pick and place of up to 60 keys per minute, seamless integration with the existing production line and a minimal factory floor footprint.
SOLUTIONS FROM SHIBAURA MACHINE To meet the
requirements, the Freedom Fresh team enlisted automation experts, M.A.P Services, the authorised Australian distribution partner of TM Robotics and Shibaura Machine industrial robots. The M.A.P Services team selected the THE400 robot as the
foundation for the system. The THE series is a flagship SCARA robot range from Shibaura Machine - formerly known as Toshiba Machine until a corporate name change in 2020. The THE series is among the latest robotic launches from the Japanese manufacturer and an ideal choice for pick-and-place applications. “The THE400 met all of the requirements for
the Freedom Fresh project,” explains Nigel Smith, managing director and CEO of TM Robotics. “With a 400 mm arm length, the robot is relatively compact and requires minimal factory floor space. It boasts an impressive cycle time of 0.39 seconds with a 2 kg load and accurate movement trajectory with high-speed operation.”
The robot was equipped with the TS5000,
a high-speed, precise robotic controller from Shibaura Machine. M.A.P also integrated an IFM O2D camera for vision processing and an IFM encoder for conveyor tracking, with SMC vacuum gear handling the pick-and- place mechanism.
AN AUTOMATED PICK-AND-PLACE PROCESS With this equipment now installed, the automated process begins with the IFM O2D
Autumn 2024 UKManufacturing
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