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ROBOTIZATION CONTINUES @ VETIPAK

The first robot arrived already in 2012 at our plant in Veghel, which started as an experiment, but since the first one arrived we continued to develop with robots for integration in our production processes. Since 2012 you can find alread over 10 robots within our facilities and at our R&D department.

 

As Arno van de Ven our C.E.O. told Cees van de Ven, our head of engineering: “Cees we should buy a robot to find out how we can benefit in the future with these devices as it will be coming sooner or later!”. And there we went: buying our first robot for R&D purposes only. For researching the  type of capabilities we could develop with this device for all our Vetipak facilities in the near Future.


But then the first devices arrive at our premises in Veghel and since that day, it was unwrapped, programmed and trailed at our first Vetibox© line, as we had a very simple task;  taking out the Vetiboxes from the machine and place these in boxes for internal transport, really boring. Which resulting in ordering the second one, as this one was immediately occupied due to the perfect fit. It also had an extra contribution to our health & safety regulations as this task is safer to be done by a robot.


Nowadays it is not a new topic  anymore and in case we looking for improvements, or complex tasks which we can’t fulfill manually we will integrate these devices all over. At this moment you can find them on our champagne (confectionary) bottle line at many places from placing and taking the bottle to automatically capping and screwing the bottoms. Followed by automatic labeling of the labels on our Vetibox©. Very fast and precise they apply the temper evident labels at the specific spots in a high speed a task a human being not can fulfill in that speed.


More complexity
“The sky is the limit with these devices, the more we integrate the more opportunities we see for Vetipak and our customers”, as Cees van de Ven – Head of Engineering. The robot technology evolution is going very rapidly. Here we have close partnership with our partners KUKA, ABB and Omron were we discuss more possibilities and their strategy on a regular basis.
    
From the automatic labeling, placing and other tasks we moved Vision Guided Robots*.
One example is our heavy duty task robot of placing 6 kg of cans with babypowder into the transport units, while vision is doing the control of the quality, as babyfood is requiring very high level standards on food safety. Our robot is taking care of this with there very details “eye’s”.


Our new development with the new VGR’s is that we are going to automize our controls for sorting on the go during production of different sku’s inline for a mixed display tray, fully automatically and in high speed. This gives our customer an enormous advantages in their sales process if the recipe needs to be changed for creating a better mix to have a higher stock rotation at the retailers. Just by programming the VGR with a different menu, we create a brand new stock keeping unit, while we keep as much as possible standard.
 
With the update above we have shown our already existing technology by using robotizing, a technology we believe in. With thanks to our strategic customers we got the ability to bring them in practice by looking into the future and developing a best fit for purpose solution with all kind of advantages on all disciplines; heavy lifting, safety, speed, (quality-) control, pick & place, screwing, sorting and many more to come. If you are also interested place do not hesitate to contact our business development department and discuss your business case and/or requirements.

 


*A Vision Guided Robot (VGR) System is basically a robot fitted with one or more cameras used as sensors to provide a secondary feedback signal to the robot controller to more accurately move to a variable target position. VGR is rapidly transforming production processes by enabling robots to be highly adaptable and more easily implemented, while dramatically reducing the cost and complexity of fixed tooling previously associated with the design and set up of robotic cells, whether for material handling, automated assembly, agricultural applications, life sciences, and more.