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MACHINERY


Packing is an area which is traditionally very labour intensive. There is now a clear trend of using robots to pack products into trays, freeing up human workers to carry out more value-added tasks.


compared with 23 per cent for automotive. Fortunately, the tide is beginning to turn – global robot installations in the food and beverage industry grew by 12 per cent year on year from 2016 to 2021. And in the UK, of the 2,054 industrial robot installations in 2021, 164 were in the food and beverage industry, representing a total of eight per cent – well above the global average. Most robot installations in food production lines are for packaging, picking and placing tasks. However, there is a lot more that robots can do. FANUC believes the adoption of robotics is set to change the face of food manufacturing for the better, both for primary and secondary processing and packaging tasks. Here, we look at four ways in which food production lines could look very different in 2033 thanks to the increased use of robots and automation…


1 INCREASED USE OF COBOTS Lightweight and simple to use, collaborative robots, or cobots, are becoming increasingly popular within food factories, especially where space is restricted. Extremely slimline and with a base not much bigger than an A4 sheet of paper, they fit easily into crowded areas, such as loading/palletising environments, and can work alongside humans. Despite their size, they


UKManufacturing Summer 2024


In the UK, of the 2,054 industrial robot installations in 2021, 164 were in the food and beverage industry, representing a total of 8% – well above the global average.


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