Award-winning Robomatrix® is the fastest, most flexible palletising system available for the Australian market, multiplying output and flexibility, without a drop in performance no matter how many product variants and patterns are programmed.

Robomatrix® Dual Infeed is a new release and a step change in Australian palletising, enabling FMCG manufacturers to palletise smaller formats at high speed.

Local beverage manufacturers have traditionally palletised their products in large formats: 24 and 30 packs, which may only require ten cases to be manipulated per layer on a pallet.

However, product offerings for even traditional beverage manufacturers are changing rapidly. Different kinds of cans are on offer: sleek, slim and classic, and bottles to suit RTDs (Ready to Drinks), seltzers, no and low alcohol and ‘good for you’ products. Increasingly, manufacturers need to palletise more cases of smaller pack sizes on each pallet layer.

So we took our award-winning high-speed palletiser and came up with Robomatrix® Dual Infeed.

Cases are fed in two parallel lanes to two industrial robots (which work across both lanes) to optimise case collation.

Cases are brought onto the pattern-forming area much closer together (almost simultaneously), which in turn allows us to form the pattern at a faster rate.

Handling smaller packs in “blocks” or groups up to 1200mm in length allows building of layer patterns with minimal gaps, eliminating unwanted pack turning or layer accumulation problems common with conventional palletising systems.

The dual-infeed design required the development of a new Robowizard programming tool.

Robowizard is an HMI-based graphical interface that allows our customers to generate new pallet patterns in minutes, avoiding the costs and delays required by many palletiser suppliers where only the OEM or highly trained programmers can do such work, often at a cost to the customer of over $10,000 per pattern.

This new version of Robowizard also includes an automatic pattern generator, suggesting several pallet utilisation optimised patterns based on the case and pallet size entered. The operator can accept one of these patterns, make changes using it as a base template, or generate a completely new pattern.

Client references include Asahi.

Control System

PLC — Siemens S7 or AB ControlLogix

SCADA and pattern forming — WinCC, Citect or RSView combined with Robomatrix® Pattern Wizard

Robots — ABB. Other options available

Other — SEW Servo motors, SICK sensors, Festo pneumatics

Performance

Pattern forming — Up to 12 robot cycles/min (up to 120 cases/min, pattern dependent)

Layers / minute — Up to 10 layers / minute

Robomatrix® System — Low Level, High Level and Multi-Line Systems