To ensure that the food bowl is well filled, “little Paul” takes care of the supplies.

Coboworx installed and commissioned a Basic Plus cell for the animal feed manufacturer, which offers two pallet storage spaces and flexibly processes a throughput of 800 packaging units. These throughput figures add up to up to six tons per hour, “which extrapolated to one shift amounts to up to 48 tons,” calculates Markus Koller. Stretched cardboard trays, each containing six cans in three different sizes (200, 400, and 800 grams), are palletized. The trays are transported via a conveyor belt to the access area of the robot, which has a load capacity of 25 kg. The robot can easily grasp two packaging units at a time and place them on the pallet with precise positioning. Corresponding placement patterns for the different packaging units are stored in the control system and can be easily accessed via the integrated HMI (Human Machine Interface). Palletizing is done by type, i.e., only one type of packaging unit per pallet. The gripper concept is also a decisive factor for long-term successful plant operation with high availability: on the one hand, it is variable to enable the handling and depositing of trays with different weights and dimensions; on the other hand, it consists of standard modules so that costs remain at “catalog level.” The gripper unit consists of two pneumatic parallel grippers, in which 3D-printed plastic fingers can securely grip either one or two trays in a product-friendly manner using appropriate sensing technology. Conversion to other tray sizes can be completed in a few minutes.

Pro Pet Koller cites the “Robotics as a Service” subscription model as a decisive criterion for the investment. This model includes immediately depreciable and fixed monthly rates and leaves open the option of expanding the system during the term or exchanging it for a new one. “From a purely monetary perspective, the rental rate is similar to what I would pay for an employee I would like to hire but cannot find. The advantage of the robot is, of course, that it works 16 hours instead of 8 and is an incredible support for my current employees. It also gives me the opportunity to deploy my employees elsewhere.”

Key features of the “Basic Plus” palletizing solution

• Fanuc industrial robot M-20iD/25 with a payload of up to 25 kg
• Stable gripping of workpieces with suitable gripping technology
• Space requirement 9 m² (3x3 m)
• Safety fence with transparent, extremely impact-resistant Makrolon panels
• Integrated HMI with an intuitive user interface
• Easy to use, no expert knowledge required
• Two pallet storage spaces
• Setup and commissioning in 1-2 days
• Safety concept and CE certification included

Manual stacking of packaging units onto pallets is a thing of the past at Pro Pet Koller. The robot system is powerful and so flexible that different packaging variants can be palletized. In daily work, the coboworx modular system proves to be a flexible solution that keeps numerous options open. The robot was immediately accepted by the workforce and is affectionately known as “little Paul.” “To be honest, I don't know why it was given that name...,” laughs Markus Koller. But it's nice to see that the robot was immediately integrated into the team and that the employees are happy to have its support.

Future Prospects

Together with coboworx, Markus Koller is currently planning to expand the Basic Plus system to a Pro Plus system. Since full pallets are removed from the cell using a forklift truck in the current Basic Plus configuration and empty pallets are placed in the cell manually, Markus Koller would like to see a further expansion of the system with greater autonomy at the new location. This can be easily achieved at coboworx thanks to the modular concept and “Robotics as a Service.” A pallet magazine is to be integrated into the planned Pro Plus cell, which will allow continuous pallet transport, as throughput is to be doubled from 800 to 1,600 units per hour. In addition, a stretcher is to be implemented so that the full pallets are automatically wrapped and only need to be removed from the buffer area by one employee.