Robotic palletising solution addresses packaging environmental issues

Citation

(2005), "Robotic palletising solution addresses packaging environmental issues", Industrial Robot, Vol. 32 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2005.04932baf.005

Robotic palletising solution addresses packaging environmental issues

Robotic palletising solution addresses packaging environmental issues

Keywords: Robots, Construction industry, Pallets

To those who can compare building “booms” of old with the current building explosion, one change stands out more than most – building sites are now relatively tidy places. Virtually smoke free zones, the constant rubbish burning fire in the middle of the site, is just a distant memory. Driven by legislation and environmental controls, the impact goes right back to the raw materials manufacturer.

For Thermalite, the UK's leading manufacturer of building blocks and part of Marley Building Materials Limited (MBM), the need to reduce packaging for environmental reasons has been an objective for sometime. This, together with demand for pallet free stacks of blocks, drove MBM to invest in a robotic handling system for its packaging area.

Steve Herriott, Project Manager, MBM, explains, “The traditional method for transporting blocks around a site was to lower packs of blocks from a lorry onto a pallet for fork truck access. Pallets aren't wanted on site especially now fires are illegal and putting a return deposit on pallets can be seen as penalising the customer particularly when pallets aren't returned.

“The solution is to provide voids in the pack for fork truck lifting – this has an immediate effect on reducing packaging.”

Producing the configurations for over 17 different void packs was impossible for Thermalite's dedicated automated packaging system so robots were considered and several suppliers consulted. An existing user of FANUC robots at its tile manufacturing facility in Beenham, MBM contracted FANUC to design and install a system at the Thermalite plant in Thurrock.

The existing process equipment, which delivers a “cake” of 28 columns of blocks every 150s, dictates the palletising cycle time. To achieve this two independent cells of three robots each were supplied – each cell working from each end of the cake.

Robot one of each cell, a six axis 200kg payload FANUC Robotics R2000/200F, picks up a column of blocks and places it onto an accumulating transfer conveyor. Depending on the block size the system programme instructs the robot to select either a clamping gripper for small blocks or a vacuum plate for larger blocks from the auto tool changer.

Tidiness of the completed pack is a core objective of the system to ensure secure packing and minimisation of pack “footprint” when in storage. To enable this it is essential for the sides to be flat by aligning bricks. The accumulation transfer conveyor uses a laser positioning system and a servo driven blade to accurately position the blocks for the pack building robot.

Pack building is carried out on both lines by a four axis FANUC M410/WW 450kg palletising robot in conjunction with a third robot, a FANUC R2000/B robot, for creating the void layer (Plate 6).

Plate 6

Robot two picks aligned blocks from the pack building system and places the first layer directly onto a conveyor. Robot Three has blocks placed in front of it which it arranges to form a void layer. A protection sheet is placed on top of the void layer by Robot Three to protect blocks from lifting forks when being handled. The void layer when complete is positioned by Robot Two which continues to make up the finished pack picking up two rows at a time with specially designed grippers.

Complete packs are conveyed into a “fly strapping” area where, to avoid block breakages, a unique clamping system applies pressure to the sides of the pack system before the straps are applied.

Strapped packs then continue to a wrapping area and are collated for pick up outside the celi.

“Viewing the system in operation provides the best indication of the control complexity managed by the six robot control systems. Working within each others work space, robots two and three are linked to avoid collision. An operator touch screen monitor provides straight forward status information and allows for routine interventions such as system clean down,” explains Herriott.

Installed now for just 6 months, the system performance is meeting the requirements of the Thermalite plant. Herriott continues, “Engineering a system of this complexity requires confidence between the two partners – supplier and customer – replicating a production environment, particularly one as aggressive as Thermalite's, for pre-build trials aren't always possible. Our confidence is such that MBM has already ordered a similar system to be installed in Thermalite's Coleshill facility.”

For further details visit the web site: www.fanucrobotics.co.uk