Why robots are part of the recipe
for success for food producers
The ability to respond quickly to changes
in customer tastes and keep up with
competitors is putting food companies
under growing pressure to find new ways
to stay one step ahead. Fast, flexible and
increasingly simple and cost effective
to implement, robots offer an attractive
solution for producers to expand the
variety of goods they can offer.
WRITTEN BY MIKE WILSON, BUSINESS &
DEVELOPMENT MANAGER FOR THE UK AND
IRELAND, ABB ROBOTICS
Ongoing developments in technology,
coupled with an expanding variety of
robots in different sizes and mounting
arrangements, are seeing robots
increasingly making their way into food
production applications.
One example is picking and packing. Using
integrated vision technology, the latest
high-speed picking robots can recognise
a variety of shapes, sizes and colours,
adjusting their performance to achieve the
fastest and most precise process. They
can also be quickly switched over to handle
different products, with the added option
of equipping them with either finger-like
grippers or suction pads, depending on the
product being handled.
Another application where robots are
transforming performance is slicing.
With many types of food products, it has
traditionally been difficult to find a solution
that can achieve a clean cut.
With advances in technology, this challenge
has been overcome. Compact robots tooled
with ultrasonic blades, can slice through
a variety of substances quickly and to a
consistently high standard. Compared to
a mechanical cutter, a robot tooled with
an ultrasonic blade can achieve a greater
variety of cut profiles with no risk of
production errors.
Developments in robotic vision and
software have also opened new
possibilities to produce bespoke products.
Dutch baking company, De Bakker, for
example, uses CAD software to create and
upload individual designs to an ABB robot
32 FDPP - www.fdpp.co.uk
for icing onto cakes. Since installation,
the robot system has increased the
company’s productivity by over 1,000
percent.
With food producers facing changeable
times, companies searching for an
efficient, reliable and productive solution
would do well to consider robotic
automation.
For more information, email robotics@
gb.abb.com or call 01908 350300 ref.
‘Robots for food’.