With a new gripper from Piab, six-packs with cardboard wrapping can be handled safely, gently and automatically without leaving marks. This provides the beverage industry with a new solution for more efficient packaging and palletising of bottles.
After various discussions with customers from the plant engineering and beverage industry, it was clear to Piab's experts that a gripper for the simple automatic handling of six-packs with carton wrapping was needed. After all, this is how beer and mixed drinks containing beer are sold. The beverage industry has to pack and palletise them accordingly.
Gentle handling required
The difficulty in automating this process step to date has been that mechanical grippers cannot pick up the bottles from the top of the crown caps. This is because these are usually sealed with an aluminium or paper band. This would be damaged. At the same time, the cardboard is relatively thin and unstable. Careful handling is therefore required. And to avoid giving the impression that the packaging is damaged, the gripper should be No marks on the cardboard packaging leave behind.
The vacuum specialists at Piab have therefore developed a Special grippers with rectangular suction cups. The rectangular suction cups take the six-pack in only three places on. The aim was to prevent the cardboard from being pulled into the suction cups due to the large suction surface and thus leaving marks. The Piab team therefore developed a corresponding load support as part of the suction cups. This prevents the cardboard from being pulled in as well.
Flexible handling of six-packs
The gripper is manufactured in the 3D printing process. It can therefore be Easily adapted to different six-pack sizes can be changed. The quickest way to do this is via the interchangeable cheeks, which serve to stabilise the six-pack in the gripper during handling. In addition to the rectangular suction cups, the gripper contains Piab's powerful COAX® vacuum ejectors. One COAX® ejector is integrated decentrally for each rectangular suction cup. Each ejector works independently of the others, which ensures Additional security during handling. If one fails, for example due to soiling, the other two continue to hold the six-pack reliably. The gripper has an automatic blow-off pulse, which enables the six-pack to be deposited quickly. It also cleans the ejector, channels and suction cup at the same time
For customers with Industry 4.0 interfaces, the gripper offers the option of querying vacuum process data.
[infotext icon]Piab develops intelligent solutions for production automation. The company has over 700 employees worldwide and has subsidiaries and sales partners in almost 70 countries.SourcePiab : Piab
