Cadbury to invest £1.2M in automated robot palletising
Cadbury has placed a £1.2M order with CKF Systems for an automated robot palletising system for its Sheffield factory. The system being installed will convey cases from eight production lines, running at up to 22 cases per minute, through to three robot cells and a pallet handling system that includes pallet dispensing and a high speed stretch wrapper.
Dedicated conveyor lines, each with a spiral elevator and high-level transfer system, will deliver cases to the robot palletising system. Here cases will be collated prior to being picked up by the robot grippers. The robot cell will consist of three ABB IRB 660 robots fitted with vacuum grippers and controlled by Pick Master 5 software.
The system is required to handle three separate pallet sizes. The pallet distribution system will use three detachers, one for each pallet size, to feed single pallets on to a common shuttle car that will deliver them to the appropriate robot station on demand.
Each robot station will include multiple pallet conveyor arrangements, each incorporating a hold station for empty pallets. Loaded pallets will be received from each of the three stations on a dedicated shuttle carriage and delivered to a high speed stretchwrapper unit.
Contact: CKF Systems Tel: 01452 424 565
