Robotics Special Report: Vision Enables Tube Picking/Placing at 160/min

A new SCARA robotic cell developed for the collation of cosmetic tubes uses vision software and specially designed end-of-arm tooling.

Anne Marie Mohan

Aug 7th, 2020

ESS Technologies uses three Fanuc robots to collate more than 160 cosmetic tubes/min for feeding to a case packer.

A recent ESS Technologies, Inc. case-packing project involved the integration of three SR-3iA Fanuc SCARA robots, equipped with Fanuc’s iRVision and ESS-designed end-of-arm tooling (EOAT) to collate more than 160 cosmetic tubes/min for feeding to a case packer. Named the TaskMate Robotic Systems® high-speed SCARA robotic collation cell, the system can also handle pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, consumer goods, and medical devices.

ESS engineers programmed the three robots using Fanuc’s iRPickTool software, which it explains simplifies the setup of picking-and-packing conveyor tracking applications. iRPickTool supports camera tracking applications using integrated iRVision software and also provides a means of setup so that robots can share work using multiple load-balancing methods. The software allows the robots to pick from fixed stations, standard conveyors, and indexing conveyors.

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In the tube collation application, a camera above the flat-belt conveyor provides the robots with the location of the tubes as they enter the robotic cell. ESS used the software to program the three robots to pick tubes from a moving flat-belt conveyor, correctly orient the tubes, and progressively load the case packer’s infeed indexing timing belt conveyor. Tubes not picked by the first or second robot are picked by the third, allowing the infeed system to orient and place over 160 tubes/min.

The indexing timing belt conveyor flows to a case-pack pattern-forming station where a Fanuc LR200iD six-axis SCARA robot with ESS-designed EOAT picks tubes and places them in a staging tray in an 18- or 36-ct case. Staged tubes are then case packed, including robotic partition insertion, using ESS’s Model V30 case packer. Shares ESS, the tube collation system allowed the manufacturer to pack up to 8.5 18-ct cases/min.

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

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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.