FOOD INDUSTRY
CARR’S FLOUR MILLS – BESPOKE SYSTEM
SYSTEM SOLUTION
In March 2020 Carr’s had increased output by 50% to 167,000 bags of flour per week to meet a retailer’s requirements. A palletising robot was needed to keep the operation running 24/7 without additional staff, while increasing the quality of the stacked pallet.
The solution is the beautiful, flexible and reliable Fanuc M710ic/70 robot with custom made gripper. At a speed of 74 bags per minute, the bespoke system gently palletises the flour to produce neat small Dusseldorf pallets, placing interlayers for increased pallet stability. Designed to a very small footprint for seamless integration with the existing equipment, the robot features an infeed product collation system with two separate safety zones and two palletising positions for continuous operation. This eliminates frequent start-stopping of the upstream bag filling equipment. Once the first pallet is filled with the required amount the robot continues palletising onto the second pallet, and an operator replaces the first one, taking the filled pallet for stretch-wrapping. The pallets are then delivered to the retailer and placed on the floor for customers to pick products directly from the pallet.
KEY BENEFITS
Increase in productivity
Flexibility according to demand
Reliability and minimum maintenance requirements
Optimal utilization of existing space and resources
Excellent construction quality