Drives & Controls September 2022

36 n FOOD & BEVERAGE September 2022 www.drivesncontrols.com Robotic fish-handling lands many benefits S amey Robotics is an Icelandic company that has revolutionised the fresh fish supply chain by developing automated centres incorporating robots to handle the distribution of fish. Samey, founded 32 years ago at a site south of Reykjavik, specialises in the design, manufacturing and installation of bespoke automation systems for the food processing industry. It has already supplied more than 2,500 automation systems to over 600 factories in 25 countries, and completed more than 150 robotic projects in 11 countries including Iceland, Norway, the Faroe Islands and the UK. Automation is particularly attractive to the fish processing industry because fish often need to be landed, processed and shipped to the customer within 24 hours. Every second counts. “An order can be placed in London, logged onto one of our customers’ operating systems in Iceland or another coastal country, and a robot will automatically start feeding the raw produce into the production cell,” explains Samey’s chief sales and marketing officer, Kristjan Karl Adalsteinsson. “In less than an hour, it will be palletised and on its way to being shipped, without anyone having to send an email, take a phone call or make a decision as to when to start or stop the system. The whole process, from order to delivery, is fully automated.” As well as being able to handle large quantities of fresh produce gently and rapidly, the systems are also need to be robust and reliable. “Given the nature of our clients’ supply chain, the fish will spoil if production stops for any length of time,” Adalsteinsson points out. “Some of our customers handle up to 500 tonnes of fresh produce per day, so unexpected downtime is simply not an option.” A combination of rising labour costs, post- Covid digital transformation and affordable automation has helped drive a surge in robot installations across the food and beverage industry. The number of industrial robots installed in European food-processing applications is expected to double in the ten years from 2015 to 2025. Samey Robotics is experiencing this growth first-hand. “Demand is increasing every year, especially with regard to high-throughput cells that can operate within stringent hygiene parameters,” Adalsteinsson reports. “The market is seeing the benefits that automation can bring from both a productivity and profitability point-of-view.” At the heart of many of Samey’s systems are Fanuc M-410 industrial palletising robots, which are designed to handle heavy items such as pallets of fresh produce. The Icelandic company has already bought more than 100 of these robots (including 25 in 2021 alone), and has a further 25 on order. Fanuc has recently started to supply Samey with its larger M-2000 robots which it claims are the most powerful six-axis machines on the market. They can handle payloads of up to 2.3 tonnes and offer a reach of up to 4.7m. Samey is using these robots to load fresh fish directly from the 460kg totes landed by trawlers into fish processing equipment. This approach could change the way that food producers think about on-site logistics, removing the need to use specialist forklift trucks and drivers, while providing gentle handling of delicate food items. “For a number of years now, Samey Robotics has been leading supply chain development in the European fish sector, with their automated approach to distribution serving as an example for other food sectors to follow,” says Oliver Selby, Fanuc UK’s robotics business development manager. “Going forward, Samey Robotics’ customer base is changing as the company embarks on a growth initiative through acquisition. “Moving beyond Europe, it is now opening up to a global audience,” he adds. “At the forefront of this strategy is, of course, robotics and automation – and Samey Robotics is keen to spread its commitment to automated supply chains into regions that are not necessarily renowned for automation.” n An Icelandic engineering business is using automation – including robots – to revolutionise supply chains for fresh fish. The time saved by these technologies is critical to ensuring that the produce reaches the dinner table as fresh as possible. Using heavy-duty robots to handle pallets of fresh fish, allows catches to be landed, processed and shipped to customers within 24 hours