ESS Technologies, Inc., a company specializing in complete packaging line design, manufacture and integration, has launched new automatic top cap forming system. This new system enables manufacturers to automate the development of retail-ready display pallets and pallets that need top caps between layers for more stability.
A FANUC robot is integrated by the engineers to provide the picking and placement of top cap blanks into the ESS forming system that folds and glues pallet top caps. The top cap former may be co-located with the ESS Robotic Pallet Cell. It also has a FANUC robot that palletizes cases and display trays in a pre-programmed pattern. It places the formed top cap on every completed layer or as needed. Manufacturers and packagers who make point-of-purchase display pallets and pallet loads that need additional stability benefit from the top cap system.
A FANUC M-20iA robot is used by the top cap former system. The FANUC M-20iA robot has vacuum end-of-arm-tooling (EOAT) to pick huge top cap blanks and put them on the ESS top cap forming device. The ESS top cap forming device then folds and glues the sides of the top cap in place in just a few seconds. The top cap is then picked by a FANUC palletizing robot and is put on the layer as needed.
To create a fully automated palletizing system that can handle up to 30 cases per minute, the top cap forming system and the ESS Technologies robotic palletizing system may be integrated with an automatic pallet dispenser, a flow-thru pallet conveyer and a pallet stretch wrapper.
The pallet cell is allowed to control the top cam forming system's timing by the Allen Bradley ControlNet networking controls. It signals the robot to pick the top cap blank and put in on the top cap forming device. The pallet cell and the top cap forming system's operation are simplified by a single HMI touchscreen. The robot can handle numerous retail-ready display trays and standard RSC cases because of custom EOAT on it.
Manual changeover is very quick according to a release. It normally takes under 10 minutes for this process. The system can be commanded to do automatic "one-button" EOAT changeover. Less factory floor space is needed by the compact footprint than traditional non-robotic solutions. The configuration of the system can be modified because of the FANUC robots' flexibility.
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Edited by
Alice Straight
