Robotics Special Report: Addressing Labor Shortages can ‘Help Feed the World’

Robot manufacturer develops a system to alleviate the lack of labor in the nut industry that can sort nuts at the final stage of the conditioning process.

Anne Marie Mohan

Aug 4th, 2020

Premier Tech has developed the PSR robotic solution to speed the sorting of nuts at the final stage of the conditioning process.

A 2019 business intelligence report on robotics from PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, cited a lack of qualified and available labor in the workforce and the need to increase throughput as the key trends driving the expansion of robots. Most recently, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, robots have come to the fore as a way for manufacturers to more safely keep workers socially distanced on the factory floor and maintain operations.

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According to Premier Tech, one industry particularly suffering from a shortage of labor is agriculture—in particular, nut producers. To address this problem, as well as mitigate the issue of food distribution and availability in order to “help feed the world,” it has developed the PSR robotic solution to speed the sorting of nuts at the final stage of the conditioning process.

Explains the company, the equipment’s components are all integrated within a compact structure to enable shorter start-up times. The system has been successfully tested with almonds and pecans, and trials with other types of nuts are in the pipeline. “Our goal is to help the nut industry with the labor shortage they are facing for the tedious and difficult job that is nut sorting,” explains Curt Davis, Sales Director for the agriculture market at Premier Tech. “The dual M1 Fanuc robots have been able to sort up to 3,000 pounds of almonds per hour in our lab, and we are very excited to test it under real conditions to see how it adapts.”

Read Packaging World's full 2020 Robotics Special Report: Robots Drive the Manufacturing Revolution

Download the Playbook

For more information on trends in robotics, download Packaging World’s new Packaging Robotics Playbook, 2020 Edition.

PMMI Guidance on ANSI Standards for Robotics

When getting started with robotics, a question often arises as to which standard(s) apply to a machine. Or stated differently, “Is this a robotic system that does packaging, or a packaging machine that includes a robot?”

PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies recommends that machinery users apply the ANSI B155.1 standard for packaging and processing systems to the packaging system as a whole, and make use of the type-C standards, which deal with detailed safety requirements for a particular machine or group of machines, as guidance to meet the requirements of B155.1. By applying the B155.1 as the base standard and drawing on the specific applicable requirements of R15.06 (a U.S. national adoption of the international standard ISO 10218-1 and -2), machinery users can achieve the best of both worlds—packaging and processing machinery with automation.

Knowing how to apply the industry standards can assist in developing productive, safe, and effective solutions. PMMI can assist. Contact Tom Egan, Vice President of Industry Services for PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies at tegan@pmmi.org.