With consumer buying trends influencing greater product diversification, production and packing facilities throughout the UK and Europe are increasingly leaning towards flexible robots that straddle several lines and perform multiple tasks. As testament, Pacepacker Services reports that enquires for single robots dedicated to the entire end-of-line palletising station has doubled in the last 12 months as customers move away from traditional application-specific palletising work cells.
Addressing the issue of frequent product changeovers, the FANUC M410 series has the payload and multitasking capability of stacking anything, ranging from 25kg potato sacks, to tubs of animal feed and bales of pet bedding. For increased flexibility, this high-speed robot can be fitted with different multi-purpose end effectors to suit the application. What’s more, the robot can be easily moved to other production areas to suit business demands, boosting a packer’s investment even further.
Designed specifically for palletising tasks, the M410 robot family is capable of multiple palletising configurations and features a large vertical work envelope. Pacepacker’s Commercial & Information Systems Manager, Paul Wilkinson, explains: “We are increasingly designing palletising cells with three to four in-feed conveyor lines, often carrying different product sizes, packaging types and weights. Thanks to the maximum 3.1m reach of the M410, one robot can pick up different pack formats from multiple lines simultaneously and stack up to three pallets up to 2.4 metres high.
