n NEWS THREE UK ENGINEERING FIRMS – Siemens, Wymbs Engineering and HMK Automation & Drives – have jointly developed a robotic cell to help food manufacturers to automate complex and repetitive production tasks at a lower cost, with reduced risk and engineering complexity. The open platform brings robot control into the same environment as that used to manage other parts of a production line, eliminating the need for vendor-specific robot know-how, and making industrial robots easier to integrate, operate and maintain for food manufacturers. The modular cell can be adapted to perform a wide range of tasks, such as pickand-place handling, depositing products and performing customisation tasks. It can be reconfigured to perform roles such as injecting cream into doughnuts, decorating bakery products, or picking-and-packing products. The machine can be equipped with an industrial agentic AI application for contextual image recognition, and to provide operators with suggestions based on real-time data. For example, the agent can analyse unusual temperature readings, offer possible reasons, and suggest fixes. The industrial AI will offer a more accessible way to understand machine behaviour, investigate faults and support maintenance. It is intended to reduce reliance on specialist programming knowledge, and to help production teams to respond more rapidly if issues occur. Robots used in food manufacturing often rely on supplier-specific controllers, software and programming tools. The new open platform reduces this reliance by using Siemens automation components to control the robot alongside the rest of the production line, reducing the need for separate robot controls and specialist programming. The modular platform allows the cell to be adapted for different products and processes using software. This will allow faster product changeovers and give manufacturers greater flexibility to adapt to changing customer demands. It also means that manufacturers will be able to respond quickly to seasonal demand, or to new product launches, with the cell allowing custom decorations to be applied in batches as small as one. The machine uses off-the-shelf components that comply with IEC 62443, making repair and replacement easy and fast, while supporting cyber-resilience strategies. The launch of the cell comes as food manufacturers are coming under increasing pressure to improve productivity, protect margins and increase flexibility. The developers say their machine will improve the precision and repeatability of processes such as depositing, filling, icing and decorating. The platform has also been designed with future manufacturing requirements in mind, including cybersecurity compliance, and the wider use of industrial AI in production environments. “There’s huge potential for robotics and industrial AI to help food manufacturers overcome long-standing challenges around cost, labour availability and operational complexity,” says Lucas Laurie, Siemens’ key OEM accounts manager for the UK & Ireland. “But the technology has to be practical. Companies need systems that are easy to integrate and simple to support. “With Wymbs Engineering and HMK Automation & Drives we’re bringing robot control in the sector into the same standard automation environment many manufacturers already use across their production lines,” he continues. “That means robotics can be operated and maintained in a more familiar environment, rather than sitting apart as a separate system”. Siemens-led UK trio develops robot cell to make life easier for food firms The modular robot cell is designed to help food manufacturers to boost productivity, cut waste and increase precision
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