Brillopak ’ s solution was to specify its UniPAKer in a dual-pick configuration , in which a single robot performs two picks , then places the packs in the crate , two at a time .
Unipaker meats with approval at pork producer
A leading UK pork producer has become the first meat industry success story for Brillopak ’ s UniPAKer robotic crate packer . The last piece of the jigsaw in a new multi-million pound line , the clever robot cell has enabled several staff to be redeployed onto more valuable , less repetitive tasks at a time when labour is in short supply .
Having invested heavily in a state-ofthe-art line for cutting , portioning and packaging fresh pork into trays , in 2020 , the producer turned its attention to the end-of-line crate packing operation . This process was still manual and COVID and Brexit were compounding the issue of labour availability .
After carrying out some research , the producer approached Brillopak , an agile and innovative designer of robotic packing automation . 16 FDPP - www . fdpp . co . uk
“ The fact that they are an independent company was important to me , as I know that , as a dynamic meat business , we are more likely to get the attention we need . I also knew that they were working with major supermarkets on automation projects so they had the experience ,” said the company ’ s Factory Operations Manager , who was responsible for leading the project .
The main motivation for automating its crate packing operation wasn ’ t to reduce head count per se , rather to maximise the potential of existing staff by redeploying them onto more valueadding tasks .
“ This in turn will enable us to keep the people we have , as finding good labour is becoming an issue ,” he explained .
The producer ’ s brief was for a small footprint system that could pack multiple tray-sealed fresh pork SKUs , ranging in size from 250g up to 1kg , into plastic retail half crates ( 300x400mm ) at a line speed of 66 ppm , with minimal manual intervention .
Brillopak proposed a solution with its award-winning UniPAKer robot at its centre . This trail-blazing system has already revolutionised the packing of bagged fresh produce such as apples , sprouts and potatoes into crates and now looks set to be a game-changer in the meat , fish & poultry industry .
While tray-sealed packs of meat appear to be a fairly straightforward item to pick and place ( they are uniform with flat surfaces and are not overly delicate ), this project posed specific challenges that Brillopak had to overcome in specifying a solution .