Picking apart the placing landscape

7 March 2013



An article on pick and place is almost like a feature on transport, with such a wide array of options and possibilities, according to Simon Taylor, sales and marketing director of Endoline Machinery, manufacturer of end-of-line packaging equipment


As a supplier of secondary packaging solutions, it is easier to focus on a few common issues. Largely speaking, secondary packaging is about packing single retail items or packs into cases ready for palletisation and distribution. Although traditionally a manual process, automatic case erection and case sealing has been a commonplace feature of the packing hall in factories in all industries for several decades.

The widespread use of automated case packing is a more recent innovation that presents some interesting challenges. The brain of a human being would instantly compute an instruction to pack a product or products into a case and assess the movements (is the pack light, heavy, cuboid, cylindrical, random, rigid, soft, etc?) required to accomplish the task. The human being would then seamlessly complete the task (pick up the pack and place it neatly into the case) in a moment.

The major flaws in this scenario relate to the physical limitations of the human body, which ultimately constrains the number of times this task can be completed in a given period; the need for the human being to rest; the high cost of deploying the human being in such activity; and not least, the propensity of the human being to make mistakes.

The use of a robot in place of a person to complete this type of repetitive task is a logical progression, and does apparently provide a way to increase productivity beyond the limitations of human labour. Achieving this is possible, but requires an adjustment of perspective before rushing to adopt this so-called "pick and place" solution. It is important to understand that a robot works conversely to the human.

Deployment can be made much faster, much more robustly, and much more accurately but, unlike the human, there is no thought process, as the robot cannot think. It cannot judge the shape, size or weight of a pack, it cannot determine whether or not a pack is rigid, flaccid, rough or smooth; and therefore it cannot adjust itself to handle different products on the basis of an instant visual assessment, in the way a human can.

In reality, it can only handle a very limited range of product types and a very limited number of product presentations.


In order to be effective, the robot designer must find a way of presenting the product to the robot in an infinitely repeatable way that the robot can "learn" (by suitable programming).

None of this should in any way be interpreted to mean that robotics or pick and place systems are overrated; it simply makes the point that automation must be approached with a sympathetic mindset. A well-designed and engineered pick and place system will require a suitable robot arm, whether Cartesian, 6-axis or Flexi-pack type. It will require a purpose-designed and built collation system, which gathers the product as it arrives in the packing area and coralls it into some form of "bundle", which will be located at a reference point from which it can be picked up by the robot using a robotic hand, that has also been purpose-designed to "grip" the product or product bundle in a secure manner while it moves, and insert it into the case.

So far so good, but what if there are several different case sizes requiring different product configurations? What if a spacer, separator or other material needs to be inserted into the case between layers?

All of the above can be achieved, but this requires more complex robotic movements or robotic hands and, therefore, additional programming. It is also likely to influence the deployment of the collation module and introduce the need for an accumulation area so that each cycle can complete before the next one begins.

The scope, flexibility and speed that is possible with well-designed pick and place systems is truly remarkable. To an expert supplier, the thought that goes into the design of such a system is entirely logical and intuitive through learning. To an end-user - particularly a novice user of this type of automation - the exact opposite may be true.

A great deal of the mystique that surrounds robots and automation is simply the result of ignorance. By simplifying the message and improving communication, purveyors of automation have a great opportunity to increase the acceptance and adoption of pick and place, and of automated solutions in general.

www.endoline.co.uk

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