Second Packaging Forum Planned for Pack Expo
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PACKAGING A MAGAZINE FROM ABB ROBOTICS June 2007 SWEET SOLUTION FOR CANDY PACKAGING At Zaini in Italy > 9 –12 Salami snacks get the robotic treatment at Unilever in Germany > 4–6 Paper stacked with finesse for SCA in the U.K. > 14–15 Packed to perfection Svedplan’s wooden furniture in Sweden > 26–27 2 PACKAGING > J U N E 2 0 0 7 Contents Picking and packing irregularly 4 shaped salami isn’t easy, but an IRB 340 Editorial does the trick at Unilever in Germany. > It’s no secret that industries that produce consumer products are becoming increasingly sophisticated when it comes to automation. And as these industries up their use of robots, we see new trends emerging that affect produc- When a U.S. tion. High hygienic requirements with machinery pharmaceutical having direct contact with the naked product, company for example (see story p. 4). Or changes in 24 warehousing that call for automated palletizing needed a better way to pick (see story p. 28). In order to meet these chang- its flow-packed medicine ing needs, three elements are key: sophisticated droppers, it turned to Italian robots, sophisticated gripper technology and automation specialist IMA. sophisticated software. ABB knows how impor- tant it is to provide these elements, working as a team with system integrators, machine build- ers and component suppliers to develop overall The ware- solutions, as well as coming up with ABB’s own housing solutions, such as the innovative new ABB Panel industry has Mount Controller (see story p. 22). I hope that 28 this issue of Packaging gives you ideas and determined that loading inspiration for your own future automation. and unloading pallets by hand is no longer the way Frank-Peter Kirgis to go. The new trend is to Segment Manager, Consumer Industries ABB Robotics automate. The pharmaceutical industry is facing new pres- sures as it continues to change and adapt to the 7 PACKING: Italian chocolate maker Zaini takes the sweet route to needs of today. Growth is shifting from mature automation for its myriad of confections. to emerging markets, such as China, Brazil and Turkey. While new products are constantly under TRENDS: At the Global Packaging Forum in November 2007 in 10 development, it takes a long time to get them Munich, the brightest and best minds from the packaging industry met. to market because manufacturing solutions are 12 PACKING: Making sure Wrigley’s chewing gum makes it into the box, typically specialized one-offs that are expensive HMPS helps the company’s plant in Australia with a smart solution. and often prone to break downs. There is huge potential to remedy this with robotics. What phar- 14 PALLETIZING: Dealing with different-sized rolls of paper on pallets maceutical companies need are solutions that takes robotic skill at SCA in the U.K. will provide superior uptime. They need flexible 16 PICKING: With critical items such as AstraZeneca’s Nexium walletpack solutions with short changeover times – robots medicine, trust is a must for picking and packing. that can easily adapt to new and different prod- ucts. In this issue of Packaging, we hope to show 18 PALLETIZING: Simplicity and predictability are key when palletizing you solutions – such as IMA’s dropper packaging bottles of Foster’s, one of the leading brands Down Under. (see page 24) – that you can learn from, whether 20 TECHPAGES: The future of packaging lies in today’s grippers; ABB’s you work with pharmaceuticals or any other con- new Panel mounted Controller saves space. sumer product. 26 PACKING: Wooden furniture gets flat-packed at Svedplan in Sweden. Bengt Stom 30 PALLETIZING: The Great Canadian Bean Company goes robotic. Segment Manager, Pharmaceutical ABB Robotics June 2007 • International customer magazine from ABB for packaging industries • copyright 2007 • reg. no. CG3005EN_R0 PACKAGING Marketing Manager Consumer Industries: Margareta Zeicu • Tel: +46 21 325 000 E-mail: [email protected] Publisher: ABB Robotics AB, 721 68 Västerås, Sweden • Content and design: Appelberg Publishing Agency • Printer: Edita, Västerås • Any use of text or photo requires the written consent of the publisher. www.abb.com/robotics NEWS < 3 Calendar 2007 12–14 June Packaging China Shanghai, China 19–21 June P-Mec China Pudong Shanghai, China 20–22 June Pharma Pack Japan Tokyo, Japan 26–29 June Pharmapack Moscow, Russia 25–27 September FachPack Nuremburg, Germany 26–28 September Changes for Chinese tobacco PPMA > The tobacco industry is one of the major rev- Honghe, Yuxi and Qingdao. Solutions include Birmingham, U.K. enue generators of the Chinese government finished product stacking and destacking, aux- with production and sales volume accounting iliary material combination, robotic carton over- 2–4 October P-Mec Italy for a third of the global total and annual realized turn and robotic tobacco shred unpacking. Milan, Italy taxes and interests over RMB 240 billion. In the China Cigarette Factory, one ABB Facing severe challenges from the global mar- stacking robot allows automatic stacking for 3 15–18 October ket, the Chinese tobacco industry has at the different brands product at one time. For do- PackExpo Las Vegas same time understood the need for higher pro- mestic productive cigarette factories which re- Las Vegas, U.S. duction efficiency, lower costs and optimized quire higher degree of automation, ABB devel- enterprise competitiveness. oped a tobacco shred unpacking robot solu- 13–15 November FoodTech/ PharmaTech Aimed at addressing the high labor intensity tion to replace unpacking equipment that had a Herning, Denmark and low efficiency of hand operation and poor big footprint, many equipment points, a high automation of carton handling in the current failure rate and inconvenient maintenance in 13–16 November Chinese tobacco industry, ABB has provided a the current market. ABB is making a complete Europack-Euromanut variety of automation robot products for over range of efforts for sharpening competitive Lyon, France 15 domestic cigarette factories such as edge of Chinese tobacco industry. Second Packaging Forum planned for Pack Expo > For those working with consumer goods from BMC Group, the Forum will explore business. For more information about packaging, Pack Expo Las Vegas 2007 future trends and benefits of robotic auto- the Forum, contact Margareta Zeicu at will be one of the biggest events of the mation in the packaging industry. [email protected]. year. Some 22,000 visitors and 1,200 Topics will range from global growth for companies are expected at the event, robotics in packaging to the specifics of which runs October 15-17. ABB’s stand - improving productivity through new grip- No. C-4017 in the center of the hall - will per technologies. The Forum will also ex- feature the introduction of the next gener- plore the impact that packaging now has ation of product-handling technology. on fiercely competitive consumer indus- ABB will also be running its own Global tries, such as food, beverage and pharma- Packaging Forum in conjunction with ceuticals. Pack Expo, from October 12-13 at the JW The Global Packaging Forum gives de- Marriott Hotel in Las Vegas. With speakers cision makers, end users, system integra- such as Marylin Matz from Cognex, Peter tors and key industry leaders a chance to Marks from Foodmach and Bill Cairns network, share experiences and facilitate www.abb.com/robotics 4 PACKAGING > PICKING AND PLACING By Holger Walch Photos Trio Group Salami under control High-speed robots with specially developed grippers make sure that salamis are pack- aged at the highest cycle rates at Schafft/Unilever’s plant in Ansbach, Germany. > Since 1972, Bifi salami has been a mainstay in the By planning and processing the project in partner- German snack market. A product of Unilever, Bifi ship, it was possible to install and commission the salamis had long been manufactured in the Bavarian entire system at Unilever within 10 days. town of Anspach, with certain aspects of the produc- The mechanical gripping technology helped to tion done manually, such as insertion of the salamis increase the process reliability sharply, thus raising the in the rollstock machine manually. Then in 2006, the production volume per robot. Increasing the speed of company made the switch to an automated solution the handling process also increases the risk of prod- with irb 340 FlexPicker robots from abb using grip- uct loss. This is where the positive fit principle of per technology to take the six different sausage types mechanical grippers comes into its own. from the conveyor belt and insert them in a rollstock Not only can the physical loads lead to a high machine. level of material loss, but also to a large number of Unilever commissioned robomotion GmbH from empty lifts. Subsequent processes are also affected, Stuttgart to plan and design the automation solution. for instance when packages are heat-sealed empty The aim was to use a rollstock machine to its maxi- and have to be separated at the end of the process, or mum capacity with the specified dimensions. The when packaging machines fail because the objects fall automation solution had to be ultra flexible so that uncontrolled into the machine, causing disruptions six different products could be packed with one sys- and stoppages. tem and so it could be retrofitted for future products. The mechanical grippers offer benefits over other technology because the positive-fit grip makes it Robomotion’s task was made more difficult because almost impossible to drop the item, even at maxi- the customer placed stringent requirements on the mum accelerations and speeds. Picking and placing is precision and reliability of the insertion process – not carried out with great precision. to mention major deviations between the products.