KUKA Robotics to display wide range of products for packaging industry

By Niraj M Wanikar, Chief Editor, CNCTimes.com, 2015-08-19 12:29:21

Whether for deep-freeze palletizing or complying with particular hygiene conditions: KUKA Roboter GmbH will be presenting its solutions to meet the challenges of the packaging industry at FachPack 2015 in Nuremberg from September 29 to October 1.

The robot and system builder, based in Augsburg, will be showcasing targeted developments over an area of 150 m² at Booth 3-335 in Hall 3. The German premiere of a new robot specially designed for the foodstuffs industry will also take center stage along with the cold-resistant adaptation of the service-proven standard palletizing robot from the KR QUANTEC series.

From the processing of raw products and packaging to order picking and palletizing: all of the production steps in the foodstuffs, textile, health & beauty and pharmaceutical sectors offer great potential for robot-based automation solutions. The processing and manufacturing stages here, however, are anything but standardized. They demand individual solutions and present a wide variety of requirements to be fulfilled by the robots. To adapt to new packaging designs and tasks in the shortest amount of time, KUKA robots are 100 percent flexible.

Specific requirements ideally implemented

“The challenge in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry is to provide the optimal robots and functionalities. This encompasses requirements such as washability, quick conveyor pickup or integrated image processing,” explains Mr Michael Fraede, Market Segment Manager for Consumer Goods at KUKA Roboter GmbH, as he whets the palate in anticipation of the German premiere of KUKA’s new small robot from the KR AGILUS series.

Palletizing experts – even at the lowest temperatures

At FachPack, KUKA is also demonstrating its broad expertise in the area of depalletizing with the KUKA palletizing robots from the KR QUANTEC series. With a payload range from 40 to 1,300 kilograms, the robots offer the customer unprecedented variety. They also score high thanks to short cycle times and increased throughput combined with low space requirements and high cost-effectiveness – even at extreme temperatures down to -30° Celsius. The KR QUANTEC PA arctic to be exhibited at FachPack 2015 has been specially developed for deep-freeze palletizing and demonstrates KUKA’s commitment to custom-tailored products for the packaging industry.

Humans and robots share the workspace

Human-robot collaboration (HRC) is also set to play a major role at the European Trade Show for Packaging, Technology, Processing and Logistics. KUKA Robotics is showcasing the KUKA LBR iiwa lightweight robot, which enables direct collaboration between humans and robots through safe technology. This enables order picking, for example, to be efficiently shared between people and machines. Both can work in parallel and support each other.

Simple integration with mxAutomation

On the software side at FachPack 2015, KUKA Robotics is presenting mxAutomation: a solution specifically aimed at manufacturers of packaging machines. It enables simple integration of robots with the particular machine controller. Users do not need to have special robot knowledge and can use their familiar programming and operator control environments.

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