Fanuc collaborative robot sparkles in new food factory cleaning solution
Samey Robotics and Rbot9 have chosen the FANUC CRX-10iA / L collaborative robot to power a game-changing cleaning system they have jointly developed for food factories.
Named VOTTA, inspired by the Icelandic word for‘ certify’ and echoing the sound of‘ Þvotta’(‘ washing’), the system offers overhead, automated cleaning of large-scale areas without bulky structures or layout changes.
At a time when labour shortages have reached critical levels, this represents a welcome breakthrough, eliminating the need for human intervention and delivering efficiency gains of up to 30 per cent.
Labour-intensive, repetitive and hard to staff, cleaning is a growing headache for food processors, and the options for automation are limited; CIP systems and gantry style units are expensive, disruptive and too rigid for agile operations, and floor-mounted robots occupy valuable floor space.
Recognising the need for a different type of system for its seafood industry customers, Icelandic automation provider Samey Robotics approached Rbot9 about engineering a solution based on the Canadian innovator’ s trail-blazing ROCAP industrial cable robot platform. A total of 12 high-strength cables, steered by proprietary kinematic algorithms, suspend a mobile arial robot platform that can sweep through up to 900m2 of workspace in a matter of minutes, with no requirement for rails, gantries or structural overhaul.
“ The original idea for the ROCAP
Samey Robotics and Rbot9 have chosen the FANUC CRX-10iA / L collaborative robot to power a game-changing cleaning system they have jointly developed for food factories.
cable robot came from a visit to an overcrowded welding workshop in which the ceiling was the only available space for automation. We knew that it had potential for many other industries too, and we were keen to work with Samey to explore its application in food factories for addressing one of the industry’ s biggest pain points,” said Rbot9 founder, Frédéric Vachon.
Building on a strong partnership The success of the project hinged on having a robust, dexterous and hygienically designed collaborative robot that could be configured with safety zones, speed limits and stop conditions to operate safely in a shared environment. Having partnered with FANUC for 25 years, Samey Robotics was keen to continue this collaboration and knew that the CRX-10iA / L model offered the ideal blend of attributes for this demanding application.
“ Our customers already run on the FANUC ecosystem, and for us, the CRX is indisputably the best collaborative robot series on the market. Who else offers eight years zero maintenance and up to five years warranty? And who else offers an IP67 rating on such a robust yet flexible machine?” said Kristján Karl Aðalsteinsson, Samey Robotics’ Chief Sales & Marketing Officer.
Rbot9 was equally convinced that FANUC was the right robotics partner for the project.“ We needed a robotics partner who would share our vision of bringing safe, flexible and hygienic automation to the food industry. FANUC’ s CRX series stood out, not only because of its reliability and ease-of-use, but also because of its lightweight design that fits into suspended systems like ours. It gave us the freedom and precision we needed to bring VOTTA to life,” said Frédéric.
He continued:“ Beyond the hardware, FANUC’ s global reputation aligned perfectly
36 FDPP- www. fdpp. co. uk