ROBOTICS
programme, the methods need to be focussed on the real real needs of the given situation.”
Replacing space hungry conveyors A few years ago Austrian bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturer, Josef Zotter faced a challenge when setting up a new facility. “We were severely limited in terms of space and were looking for a compact but also precise solution,” explained Alexander Hödl, a technician at Zotter. Looking at a range of space- saving solutions, the company made the decision to employ robots supplied by Kuka, as part of its chocolate moulding operation. Kuka supplied two compact six-axis robots, which are
designed to work at high-speeds and are suited to use when hygiene is a requirement. One robot picks up the mould into which the liquid chocolate is to be poured and then moves to the pouring system to allow the mould to be filled. It then swivels the mould with extreme precision so that the chocolate is evenly distributed inside it, and places it in a refrigerator. This is where the second robot takes over – removing the cooled chocolate in moulds from the refrigerator and transporting them to the output conveyor, where the finished bars are removed from the moulds. Many consider that the adoption of robots will put humans
out of work, however the reality at Zotter was very different, where the space-saving solution has actually led to additional employees being hired to work with the robots, feeding clean moulds to the first robot in the system and removing cooled bars at the end of the process
“If we had chosen a setup with conveyor belts, not only
would it have taken up much more space, but the work steps would also have taken longer,” says Alexander. “Now, with the flexibility that the robots give us, we can respond very quickly to specific customer wishes and we are also able to produce smaller order quantities.” Zotter has also employed robots at its visitor centre – Zotter
Experience World – which includes a theatre, cocoa roastery and tasting areas. Here two six-axis robots, fitted with suction cups, serve customers with their chosen chocolate treats. Customers make their selection, via a touch screen panel, and the robots pick their choice and serve it to them – providing further entertainment by doing a dance to music too! A bit of fun maybe, but it does offer a good demonstration of robot capabilities.
Secondary packaging solution Nutresa México is another a proponent of robotics – using them within the packaging lines for its Muibon and Cremino chocolate bars. Cremino is a praline made of hazelnuts and cocoa while Muibon is a wafer filled with hazelnut cream, covered with chocolate and peanuts. Nutresa Mexico has been working closely with packaging
machinery company, Cama for the last ten years. “We know their machines well, which provided us with the assurance we needed when the time came to acquire new packaging solutions for our Cremino and Muibon lines,” says Carlos Toro, Operations Manager at Nutresa Mexico. The company faced several manufacturing challenges.
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