Flexibility in automated packaging 

Packaging in the food industry specifically is challenging for several reasons. First, some products are fragile and must be handled with care and not contaminated. In addition, natural products - such as fruit - are never exactly the same. But in addition, consumers are constantly demanding new products, packaging and compositions to be processed on the same packing line.

Machine builders know all about it: the generation of packaging machines for the food industry in this day and age must be especially flexible and adaptable. This is to keep regularly changing packaging in the same line. After all, food manufacturers are now innovative and are constantly coming up with new things to attract and retain customers.

Automation

Automation makes sense especially in the larger food processing companies. With the real multinationals, this automation also goes very far and is optimized to the smallest detail in the context of LEAN and TCO. Various packaging processes can be distinguished in these lines, each of which requires its own approach. After supplying the products, this concerns placing these products in their own packaging. In addition, it is common for these packages to be placed back into a box, as outer packaging which is then palletized.

In the first case - placing the product in its own packaging - it depends very much on the products whether this can be automated or not. For example, fresh products must first be checked for quality, which can be done both visually but also possibly with a vision system. If it involves filling bottles or jars with a product produced in a previous process - for example, a sauce or a drink - then this 100% pre-check is not necessary and packaging can proceed in a fluid motion.

Placing the filled package in a rebox is easier to automate because these are predefined packages. Robots play an important role here more than once. In this regard, the food industry benefits from the fact that robots have long since ceased to be the rigid machines that can perform one specific operation after - complex - programming. Admittedly perfect and 24/7 but not really flexible. In that respect, the current generation of robots is much more 'friendly' and easier to adjust to a diversity of tasks. The developments in the field of 'grippers' support an even broader applicability.

Finally, palletizing robots are often used to then place the outer boxes on a pallet and wrap them with film, for example. The logistics systems used to bring the boxes to the right pallet sometimes show innovative solutions in which the elements in roller or ball conveyors are controlled in such a way that the boxes automatically end up in the right place. So here too, flexibility offers significant added value.

Mobile robot and cobot

However, automation is not only available to larger companies. Even in SMEs, companies can automate various steps as a solution to, for example, a shortage of personnel, better quality or faster handling. A great solution in this is a mobile robot. In contrast to a static robot that is fixed at a location, these robots can be moved and thus used in different places. Often for pick and place applications.

A pleasant "colleague" in this is also the cobot. This term stands for collaborative robot, meaning that it cooperates with its user. To keep this safe, these robots are equipped with sensors that "sense" when they accidentally touch something and then adjust their speed accordingly or stop altogether. This prevents injury to the person in question. Pneumatic cobots also offer - through the compressibility of air - a certain resilience that makes touching the cobot even gentler.

Automated food packaging? No "apples-to-apples" but worth the effort.