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They Don't Bring My Paper, Yet
From the outside, robots don't look much different from when I first learned to apply and program them more than 20 years ago.
The one exception would be the "Delta" robot patented by ABB some years ago. Vision and robots have been natural companions for at least that long. If you are moving an arm replicating a human movement, it just seems natural to have "eyes" with which to guide it.
So, despite years of science fiction visions, I don't have R2D2 bringing my paper and a drink, or C3PO translating from Chinese so I can converse around the world. I don't even have Hal running my computer. All these ideas have served to provide the foundation for robot/vision evolution under the covers, though.
One of the first things you'll notice in packaging is speed. Packaging is a high-speed discipline, and robots were more limited in value until speed picked up. Perhaps even more important are improvements that are not visible to a visitor, but are of the utmost importance to engineers and operators. These are the software improvements that can only be seen generally by the shorter time from design to manufacture and the reduced time to run off and validate at start up... Read more
Robots and Vision—The New Normal?
Vision-assisted robots seem to be springing up on packaging lines like mushrooms after a summer rain. We investigate the technological and economic factors behind this recent upsurge.
At the dawn of this century, vision-guided robots were a rarity in packaging operations. Small wonder—each of the component technologies had their own degree of complexity and cost, and getting them to work together presented an additional level of difficulty and expense. Despite the benefits in terms of speed, flexibility and precision that vision-guided robotic applications offered, relatively few end-users felt they could be justified, so while the number of applications grew from year to year, that growth was modest
Times change. The trickle of vision-guided robot applications that characterized the packaging industry earlier in this decade has now become a strong and rising stream. Whether as traditional stand-alone robots, purpose-built robotic work cells engineered for specific tasks or as robotic packaging machines, robots have now become a common sight on packaging lines, and increasingly, those robotic systems have a vision component... Read more
Vision-Assisted Robotics Ensure Fast, Accurate Tube Filling
The TFS 80-6 robotic tube filling machine from IWK Verpackungstechnik GmbH, Stutensee, Germany, is one of the fastest machines of its kind in the world.
It's also one of the most error-free, thanks to a vision system from Cognex Corp., Natick, Mass. The machine fills and seals up to 500 tubes per minute. In contrast to conventional tube filling machines that operate using a turntable, the TFS 80-6 has a conveyor circuit with a diagonal layout. With the process lines positioned at a 90-degree angle to each other, the tubes are picked up horizontally; cleaned, filled and sealed vertically, and then placed back down horizontally on a conveyor belt that takes them to a cartoning machine for final packaging... Read more
RAMP debuts at Pack Expo International
Remote Access Management Program lets a packaging machine communicate its requirements automatically over a wireless connection.
"Suppose a corporate engineer buys a piece of equipment and puts it in a plant across the country. He has limited access to that machine once the front-end acquisition is over. But with this new feature, we give that engineer the access he needs."
That's how director of marketing and distributor development Greg Levy at Arpac (www.arpac.com) describes the Remote Asset Management Program now available as an option on Arpac's Model BPTS 5000 combination tray packer/overwrapper. Levy describes it as being similar to embedding a cell phone in a packaging machine. When the machine needs to alert someone that a condition requires attention, the machine sends an e-mail... Read more
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