“On all of our lines we were relying on
manual labour to pack bags of sprouts
into crates. However, with Brexit, we
foresee a potential labour issue. The time
was right to invest in a machine that
could perform this task,” explains Ian.
One of the challenges of automating this
operation was the number of possible
pack and crate configurations. Sprouts
are packed in a variety of bag sizes, from
200g up to 500g, and each retailer has
their own crate format requirements.
“We needed the flexibility to
accommodate different pack sizes and
crate lengths, whole and half crates,
landscape and portrait layouts and
different volumes - from 10 packs up to
25 packs to a crate,” says Ian. From Drysdales’ point of view, this
Drysdales invited several robotic Brillopak’s ability to deliver a sound
expertise instilled confidence in
technical solution backed up by honest,
equipment suppliers to put forward
specialist advice if its needs were to
proposals, among them Brillopak, a
change in the future.
Kent-based designer and manufacturer
of flexible robotic packing and palletising
systems. “Brillopak has many years of experience
Brillopak’s solution was the UniPAKer as controlling the suction on the bags was
in vacuum heads, which was important,
a key part of this project. This also gave
robotic pick and place cell that was
us confidence that if in future, a customer
originally engineered for packing bags
of potatoes and apples into crates. The
UniPAKer has been specifically designed
to improve productivity and improve
Suction heads can accommodate the
wants to produce, say, a 1kg pack, we can
easily change the head,” says Ian.
irregular contours of flow wraps and
pillow packs and adjust swiftly to The UniPAKer cell has been running
different pack sizes. However, if the successfully for over eight months at
vacuum is compromised, there is the Drysdales’ facility in Cockburnspath,
risk of bags sagging and dropping Berwickshire. The flexible system
onto the packing conveyor, causing is unphased by the multiple crate
to 1kg. line stoppages. Brillopak’s approach to configurations required on this line, and is
vacuum handling is different to others currently programmed to run 30 different
“We had never tried using the UniPAKer in that it manufactures its own heads patterns without the need for any tool
using cups with independent vacuum changeovers. Manual intervention is
that we could do the job. The challenges generators, providing greater control limited to just one person to take away
were the same as with potatoes – how during handling. full crates, replace empty crates and
pack presentation on shelf. Using a four-
arm delta robot on a compact footprint,
it will load up to 75 VFFS, tray sealed or
flow wrapped packs per minute and is
ideal for vegetables, fruits and salad up
to handle sprouts before, but we knew
perform quality checks.
do you pick and place flexible bags
containing small, moving spherical “When you are looking to replace products at speed with accuracy?” says labour at the end of a line with robotics, “We’ve achieved what we set out to at
David Jahn, director at Brillopak. consistency is king, as you have the start of the project and the system
to assume there won’t be anyone does exactly what Brillopak promised
Two key elements of the UniPAKer there to intervene if the robot stops. it would do. Throughout the project
solution address these challenges: the Our business is built on designing they have been completely honest and
use of vision technology to recognise automation solutions that operate at really good and quick at coming up with
and orientate the packs and the unique high speed but with consistency; the key solutions,” concludes Ian.
design of Brillopak’s suction end- to achieving this is precision control over effector. the product throughout,” says David.
www.brillopak.co.uk
FDPP - www.fdpp.co.uk 23