Robotic Case Packing Cell
Project summary:
MWES provided a machine to erect the customer’s pre-glued auto-bottom boxes and pack individual pill packs into those boxes.
The Challenge
The customer was utilizing multiple employees in order to manually pack their product. An automated packing station was needed to increase throughput and free up the employees to focus on other projects.
Because safety was a main concern, a collaborative robot was used. No fencing was required, as the robot senses human presence and can operate out in the open.
The Solution
Our team designed a Pill Pack Packing Machine which consists of two major stations: the Case Erecting Station and the Case Packing Station.
The Case Erecting Station is a freestanding machine consisting of a flat box magazine and a Fanuc collaborative robot (with associated robot controller). The robot can automatically erect the customer’s cases at a rate of (4) boxes per minute, and feed them into the Case Packing Station.
The Case Packing Station receives cases from the Case Erecting Station, as well as the customer’s product from upstream processes (customer-provided.) The Case Packing Station contains a case (box) conveyor, a product conveyor, case packing robots, power and control enclosures, the packing robots and associated controllers, and the operator interface terminal. The Fanuc M2 Vision System robots can pack (240) pieces per minute.
Impact to the Customer
The customer is now able to pack their boxes at a production rate of 14,400 pill packs per hour, making their Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) increase by 85%.
Contact us to learn about how Midwest Engineered Systems can automate even your most complex and challenging operations today.
Client Details
Nutraceutical company based in Wisconsin