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Norway's Ello turns to robots for an automation solution

Filling, insertion into trays, secondary packaging, and palletizing of tubes is done at 155 tubes/min by a tightly integrated series of robotic systems that require only one operator.

Empty tubes are picked from boxes by the robot’s twin-row end effector and placed in the filler’s pucks.
Empty tubes are picked from boxes by the robot’s twin-row end effector and placed in the filler’s pucks.

The largest maker of branded liquid detergents and personal care products in Scandinavia, Ello recently installed a new filling line for tubes. It illustrates shift after shift after shift how useful a robot or three can be.


The new line is in Ello’s Kristiansund, Norway, plant, and it’s anchored by a filling system from Norden, part of the Coesia Group. The line is a replacement for an older system that not only was slower but required four people to operate. The new line cranks out tubes at a speed of 155/min and requires just one operator, whose primary task is to replenish the stream of packaging materials consumed by the packaging line. The robots, supplied by ABB, play a big role, as do the Schneider Electric servo motors and controls.


“The robots represent new technology for this site,” says Peder Kr. Stromsvag, technical manager at the Ello plant. “They’re flexible enough to handle 75-mL and 35-mL tubes for toothpaste, which is the product we run most often on this line. But we can also do a 150-mL tube for shower and shampoo-type products. And changeover takes only three hours, including washing of pumps and such. With labor costs in Scandinavia being as high as they are, robots are going to play an increasingly important role in our efforts to remain competitive.” (See sidebar for another example of how robotics are being implemented at the plant.)


Machine and materials are notable


The line is distinguished not only by its machines but by its materials, too, specifically the white injection-molded pocketed tray in which the tubes are placed prior to case packing. This secondary packaging format is all about retail-ready and on-shelf presentation. Not only is it attractive and easy for in-store personnel to handle, it’s also very compact, which lets Ello display more tubes in whatever retail space it is allotted.


The other intriguing thing about secondary packaging, which is applied by a Norden robotic wraparound system, is that the wraparound corrugated case has no bottom. The robotic end effector uses vacuum cups to pick a flat corrugated blank from a magazine and position it over a tray full of 15 or 30 tubes, depending on tube size. The corrugated material, a single-wall B-flute with an edge crush test rating of > 4.0 kN/m, is then folded down around all four sides. But there is no case bottom, just two narrow flaps extending along the two long sides of the case. The tooling of the Norden robotic end effector folds both of these flaps under the white plastic tray. Then at all four corners the tooling folds the extended portion of the flap, after hot melt adhesive is applied, flat against the sidewall of the corrugated. This secures the tray full of tubes inside the case, even though there is no case bottom.

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