This is an all-in-one solution for the robot-based handling of bottles in the form of the newly developed “Air Grip World system” by Yaskawa and AB Trygg.

This system with its details in stainless design ensures reliable, flexible and fast picking up of bottles, erecting cardboard boxes and finally palletizing these boxes for delivery.

RESULT

Output approx. 6-10 boxes per minute

SYSTEM COMPONENTS

2x MOTOMAN-GP50 with YRC1000 control system
Air Grip Combo gripper (patent pending)
Bottle table
Box erector with magazine for cardboard boxes
Safety fence

CHALLENGE

In the brewery business returned bottles need to be separated according to colour before being washed and ready for production.  When moving their sorting station for returned 33 cl glass bottles to a new building, Spendrups had the opportunity of designing their own tailor made solution. Spendrups wanted to achieve a sorting station that was taking up less floor space than the one they were replacing, as glass bottles are in less demand. For working out the specific robotic solution in detail, Spendrups enlisted Kopparbergs Robotteknik who has successfully designed other robot cells for Spendrups.

SOLUTION

From incoming pallets filled with returned glass bottles, still in their red plastic crates, the large MPL500 robot picks up one layer at a time. The robot deposits these crates on a conveyor and makes use of the ingenious dual function of the Air Grip gripper to immediately pick up the bottles from the crates and place them on another conveyor. Thus separating bottles from crates.

A sorting machine then separates the browns and greens from the translucent bottles. These bottles will at the twin robot station, on different conveyors, where the two MPL300 robots also use the Air Grip tool to place bottles into crates, and filled crates on pallets to be transported for washing.

RESULT

The robotic de-palletising and colour separating cell is able to handle 30.000 bottles per hour.
It generally operates on a day shift, but is capable of running on a two shift when the demand is high. Equally important is the fact that the working environment has been improved with a reduced noise level, more user friendly equipment and an increased safety.

SHORT FACTS

Customer: Spendrups AB, Grängesberg
Product: Soft drinks
Country: Sweden
Installed: 2017
Industry: Brewery
Application: Bottle handling

System components:

2x MPL300, 1x MPL500, AirGrip tools
Sorting table

Results: 30.000 bottles/hour, increased safety and improved working conditions

CHALLENGE

The facility in Stenhamra had a production line with an existing machine for bottles in multipack supplemented with manual handling of free bottles and bottle holding trays. It had become unsatisfactory both in terms of the working environment and capacity, and the machinery was overdue for replacement.

Kiviks Musteri wanted to have a better and more efficient production line on the existing floor space while keeping the functional equipment, like safety fence, pallet magazines, conveyors etc. It should handle both multipack and free bottles. It was also important that the new production line should be able to operate with the same capacity regardless of the skill of the individual operator.

SOLUTION

Yaskawa Nordic and ABTrygg worked out a solution with two palletizing robots that could replace the human operators on the existing floor space.  These two palletizing robots, MPL500 and MPL80, are able to work separately with different tasks, as well as cooperating in order to speed up the cycle times. The touch panel enables operators to easily choose preprogrammed robot jobs that runs the production work flow through the robot line.

RESULT

The robotic cell is working well in its current two shift operation. A potential future improvement is for the small MPL80 to take over the task of supplying new trays, which will save one operator of doing so manually.

SHORT FACT

Customer: Kiviks Musteri
Product: Soft drinks
Country: Sweden
Installed: 2018
Industry: Brewery
Application: Bottle handling

System components:

MPL500 robot, MPL80 robot, Air Grip tool, Roller top gripper, Sorting table, Existing conveyors etc.

 

CHALLENGE

SOLUTION

RESULT

SHORT FACTS