Die Endverpackungslinie von ETT bewältigt jährlich ein Volumen von mehreren Millionen Saucenbeuteln und lässt sich dank eingebauter Flexibilität schnell umrüsten. The final packaging line from ETT deals with a volume of several million sachets of sauce annually. The integrated flexibility of the system allows fast changeover. zuverlässig Tag für Tag im Schichtbetrieb. Mit den beiden Robotern erreichen wir die benötigten Taktzeiten problemlos.“ Prozesssicherheit Tatsächlich ist der prozesssichere Betrieb der Anlage ein entscheidendes Kriterium. Da die Nahrungsmittel-herstellung nicht auf Knopfdruck zu unterbrechen ist, würde der Ausfall der Verpackungslinie dazu führen, dass die eben produzierten Köstlichkeiten aufgrund geringer Puffermöglichkeiten alsbald wieder entsorgt werden müssten – ein Szenario, das vermieden wer-den sollte. Bis heute gab es keine nennenswerte Störung an der Anlage und so ist man bei Kühne mit der Verpackungs-anlage überaus zufrieden. „Wir haben uns für ETT als Systemintegrator entschieden, weil wir von vielen Refe-renzanlagen und der langjährigen Kompetenz von ETT im Verpackungsanlagenbau wussten. Dieses Know-how und der konsequente Einsatz hochwertiger Kom-ponenten wie z. B. der Motoman-Roboter garantieren uns heute einen störungsfreien und wirtschaftlichen Produktionsbetrieb“, resümiert Wolfgang Westphal. Dipl.-Ing. Ralf Högel, Industrie Kommunikation Högel Continued from page 58 line was commissioned in January 2012. The mixing plant produces sauces and various types of mayon-naise for bulk consumers and fast food restaurants. Annual output totals several million sachets. Currently the line produces six different products in a constantly increasing range of variants. There are various delicatessen projects in the pipeline at Hagenow and consequently the number of products and variants is set to rise drastically over the coming years. Where possible, changeovers to the line are to be kept to a minimum. “Food production is subject to the strictest hygiene regu-lations and switching to a different variant involves a complex procedure that takes several hours. For this reason, we keep the number of weekly variant changeovers as low as possible,” explains Dieter Behrens, Plant Manager at the Hagenow plant. Linked packaging line In order to be able to package the vast quantities without intermediate buffering, Kühne uses a final packaging line that is directly linked to the production line. The task of the packaging line is to package the incoming bags from the production line into cartons. Dieter Behrens highlights the particular demands placed on the system: “First and foremost, a directly linked final packaging line must be one hundred percent reliable. Otherwise, the result is massive disruptions to production. Other challenges were very short cycle times and utmost flexibility in order to be able to cope with the large range of variants.” It is no wonder that the company decided to source an experienced system integrator to design and implement the packaging line. They found what they were looking for in Moringen-based ETT Verpackungstechnik. In close cooperation with their contacts at Kühne, the ETT specialists engineered a final packaging line that operates at up to 35 cycles per minute, features a highly flexible design with two Motoman MH5 robots, and is geared towards maximising availability, thus exactly meeting the requirements profile. Depending on the upstream filling system, the performance of the packaging line can be increased to a maximum of 60 cycles per minute. The packaging line The bags are transported directly from the produc-tion line to the packaging line via a conveyor belt. During the process they first pass through an ima-ging processing system that determines the exact position of the bags on the conveyor and forwards the coordinates to the robot controller. Only in this way can the two high-speed Motoman MH5 robots in the downstream double picker cell, equipped with conveyor tracking, reliably pick up the sachets with sauce and place them in the correct position in cartons that are waiting on a parallel conveyor. The cartons are filled to a defined packing pattern which is a vital prerequisite for successful final pa-ckaging. If the bags are not positioned accurately, the carton cannot be closed. “The reliable gripping of the bags was a big chal-lenge,” recalls Nils Böhlcke, Sales Engineer at ETT: “We would normally use vacuum grippers, but that was not an option for this application. It was not possible to generate a process-reliable vacuum due to the slightly grained surface structure of the bags and the sealing seam. A sophisticated mechanical gripper design finally provided the optimal solution for this difficult task.” Both six-axis Motoman robots are equipped with the same mechanical four-finger gripper. To ensure that the tubular bags are picked up both securely and gently, the individual gripper fingers feature a tear-drop shape design. Nevertheless, a certain gripping force must be generated to ensure that the bags are not lost during the fast motion. “In this respect, we benefit from the first-class sealing joint quality and the sheet thickness of the bags that allows mechanical gripping with sufficient force, without damaging or bursting the filled bags,” adds Nils Böhlcke. Exact weighing The two Motoman robots are virtually predestined for this task. Reliable, highly dynamic, precise and untiring, the hard-working machines accomplish their task in around the clock shift operations. With their payload capacity of 5kg, reach of over 700mm and extremely compact design, these six-axis robots are perfectly suited for this application. Once the robots have completed their task and 60 2014 AUTOMATION AUTOMATISIERUNG Fotos: Ralf Högel
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