Six depalletizing stations confingured for man-operated or AGV forklift receive full cubes of product in WIP trays.
Show Daily
Show Daily Exclusive -
Consumer demand for variety packs continues stronger than ever, but assembling custom variety packs is such a disruptive, labor-intensive process, the task often is outsourced.
One brand owner decided automation could solve the problem and asked Aagard (Booth SL-5919) to build a fully automated variety packaging machine capable of producing 4,000 product combinations while meeting speed requirements, flexible changeover rates and a multitude of other specifications. An on-demand approach to case packing with speeds up to 100 cases/min. was needed. The deadline was tight too.
With these constraints, current automation wasn’t the right option. Traditional use of robotics and automation would have taken a huge amount of space and costs would have been three to four times greater.
Rockwell’s iTRAK system allows flexible changeovers and dynamic motion changing between indexing and continuous-motion profiles.Show Daily
THE SOLUTION
After multiple iterations, the fully automated Myrias™ variety case packing system was born. Not only is the machine designed to fit tight floor space requirements, it’s capable of run rates of 100 cases/min. and quick changeover.
The Myrias variety case packer relies on the iTRAK® system and gantry robots from Rockwell Automation (Booth C-4742) and is capable of assembling 4,000 configurations. With a single touch of a button on the human/machine interface, flavor mapping changes are automatic. The gantry robots pick the pattern, and the iTRAK® components adjust to accommodate the product’s fit.
Six depalletizing stations receive full cubes of product in work-in-process (WIP) trays. The machine loads one to six flavors into stand-up retail-ready display trays or cases with layer card divider sheets. Case count options range from 12 to 96. Material handling is performed by a traditional forklift or automated guided vehicle (AGV). A carefully designed human/machine interface makes the machine easy to operate, another important requirement for the brand owner.
For more info, visit www.aagard.com, www.rockwellautomation.com.
Editors report on distinguishing characteristics that define each new product and collected video demonstrating the equipment or materials as displayed at the show. This topical report, winnowed from nearly 300 PACK EXPO collective booth visits, represents a categorized, organized account of individual items that were selected based on whether they were deemed to be both new, and truly innovative, based on decades of combined editorial experience in experiencing and evaluating PACK EXPO products.
