The conundrum at the shop floor

Looking at the demanding lowdown from one of their steadiest customers had certainly made the project manager of ACG Engineering - one of the country’s leading machine makers of advanced packaging machinery for food and pharmaceutical sectors-little anxious.He was concerned for not only on the way ahead to meet the challenging requirements but also for the stringent timelines stated by the customer to meet the factory acceptance test deadlines slated to be held at an overseas location.

To start with, the customer wanted to achieve high speeds to transfer flow wrapped pouches from the main conveyor to the carton conveyor while both the conveyors are in continuous motion. A Pneumatic Gantry as a solution looked like a tried and tested option,however, having been thoroughly conversant with the same, he knew very well that these advanced results which the customer intends to achieve cannot be efficiently met via utilizing conventional solutions and it’s time to change the tack.

Moreover, the customer was extremely keen for a highly user friendly and low maintenance solution which had added another dimension that needed due attention while curating the whole solution.

Robotics – yay or nay ?

Jotting the milestones to be met, the project manager summed up the requirement to his team as follows :The application needs a high turnover, high speed, safer interface with lowest manual intervention which is not possible to achieve via regular systems.

“Would Robotics be the right step ahead?”

“We have not dabbled much in robotics so it’s an unknown territory ..”

“The odds of the customer finding the advanced robotics application costlier are high and will the solution comply with the factory acceptance tests in such a short duration?”
– the team kept deliberating on these perplexing thoughts ..

Omron pitches in..

Here is a look at the technical side of the story

The Solution

OMRON Adept Robots e-cobra 600 Pro

Ethernet capability lending convenience and ease to control the robot through the familiar programming language (IEC 61131-3) of Machine Automation Controller NJ/NX/NY Series
High repeatability suitable for material handling and precision assembly and a high payload for screw-driving tools
The amplifier and controller built into the robot reduce the number of cables
Has a reach of 600 mm ; maximum payload 5.5 kg and weighs 41 kg

The result

Ready for the factory acceptance test in record time: By achieving all the listed KPIs, Omron proved the overall performance of the system within the stipulated time and helped the customer to make it pass the factory acceptance test in just half a day. Something that had never before been experienced by the OEM.
Ease of installation: The installation time and complexities at the plant floor and at the customer site which were also some of the major concerns of the customer were deftly taken care by Omron owing to the easy maneuvering and setting up of the solution.
Value addition in conveyor tracking and machine vision capabilities: The solution also rendered complete ease in conveyor-tracking and was ready for machine vision capabilities to be added in the future.
Matching the desired global standards: The machine, destined to be installed at one of the overseas locations, was able to live up to all the desired parameters at the end-customer’s plant majorly owing to the reliability and wide & robust global support provided by Omron.