High-definition vision for Roses

Kraft Foods has increased the sustainability and efficiency of its Bournville site by installing robotic distribution for Roses and Heroes. Managing fixed cycling schedules cut daily vehicle movements.

Production lines make 10 types of chocolate for Roses and six for Heroes. Before the new system was installed, stacked boxes of product were transported across the factory to two packing plants on different floors, where they would be fed into hoppers for final packing.

CKF Systems designed a robotic vision-controlled re-circulating distribution system. This has reduced materials use by replacing cardboard boxes with plastic tote bins, and has provided safeguards to the assortment integrity.

As the wrapped units are handled in open plastic tote bins, this enables high-definition vision systems to identify product type with the recognition technology.

Four ABB 4-axis IRB 660 robots with bespoke vacuum tooling were arranged in a balanced cell format. Recipe driven, the cell format provides the flexibility needed to meet the demands of the packing derivatives and recipes when both packing plants are on demand. Each of the four cells has six pallet-feed conveyors to receive product and discharge re-palletised empty tote bins. Robot cells handle pallet management, as the tooling has been designed to handle tote bins and pallets.

Contact: CKF Systems
www.ckf.co.uk