36 n PAPER AND PACKAGING January 2025 www.drivesncontrols.com No slip-ups as banana palletising goes robotic Evesham-based Primafruit sources and supplies fresh fruit to UK supermarkets. Its banana inspection and packing lines have traditionally relied heavily on manual labour. Cardboard trays filled with bananas are received from abroad, stacked on pallets up to 2.5m high. The company then de-stacks the trays, inspect the produce and re-pack the fruit into either cardboard trays or collapsible, returnable plastic crates, before re-palletising them and despatching to retail customers. Primafruit decided to automate this process with the aim of creating a more efficient and safe working environment. The challenges of automating the palletising process included: n de-stacking the filled cardboard trays from 2.5m-high pallets that could have inconsistent stack forms, and may have become deformed during transit; n delivering cardboard trays containing bananas to inspection and re-packing stations so that there would always be an empty tray or re-useable plastic crate available at each station to allow continuous inspection and repacking; n being able to re-stack either cardboard or re-useable plastic crates onto finished pallets ready for despatch; and n minimising the system footprint to make efficient use of the floorspace. Primafruit’s automation supplier CKF Systems suggested that for the project to be costeffective, a single robot should be used for both de-stacking and restacking. This would optimise the use of the floor space and ensure that designated access routes for personnel and materials would not be obstructed. But, to handle cardboard trays as well as plastic collapsible, reuseable crates, a bespoke system would be needed. The tooling would need to protect the bananas, not marking them or causing any damage. CKF specified a ABB IRB 660 palletising robot, which can handle loads of up to 180kg and has a reach of up to 3.15m. The four-axis robot has a lightweight upper arm, and uses a parallel rod design to optimise speed, reach and payload. CKF’s engineering team developed a bespoke gripper that could pick two or three cases at a time (depending on the stack orientation.). This single tool handles both de-stacking and restacking, as well as two case variants of differing sizes, location points and materials. An anodised aluminium framework reduces the tool’s weight, and pneumaticallyactuated side grippers and base slide plates are used to transfer the multiple case formats. A vacuum assist allows product trays to be lifted before they are separated from the stack. To take into account the variability of the received pallet stacks, the robot uses an onboard sensor array to determine the coordinates of the stack’s height and position before it starts the picking operation. Once the stack cases have been transferred from the pallet, they are moved to and from the inspection cells on CKF ZPA conveyors which use Interroll’s DC drive platform. The matched controls, motor rollers and power supplies allow a unique combination of conveyors to be created, including accumulation conveyors that are configured to provide individually controllable zones, allowing zero-pressure accumulation of the product trays. The system can be configured to suit different tray sizes. The system is driven by a Rockwell platform including a compact GuardLogix 5380 safety controller with a 10” touchscreen. Troax safety fencing forms an enclosure around the robot cell, with Leuze light guards protecting pallet entry and exit. n A UK fruit supplier has installed a robotic de-palletising and re-palletising system at its site in the Vale of Evesham. To save space, the bespoke system has been designed to handle both cardboard trays and re-useable plastic crates. Primafruit’s robotic palletising system uses a custom tool to handle both cardboard trays and plastic crates, thus saving space
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