Keywords
Citation
(1999), "Automated packaging and palletising system boosts output efficiency and safety for seed and grain production", Industrial Robot, Vol. 26 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.1999.04926caf.006
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited
Automated packaging and palletising system boosts output efficiency and safety for seed and grain production
Keywords Packaging, Palletising, Robots
Peter Schwier of Morray Engineering describes how a new weigh/bagging and robotic palletising system is improving quality control, safety and productivity for a well known seed and grain business.
When agricultural seed and grain merchants, Daltons, needed to expand its processing and packaging facility to cater for growing demand, it selected Morray Engineering to design and integrate automated weigh/bagging equipment with a robotic palletising solution as part of a major £600,000 plant upgrade.
Daltons lays claim to being one of the UK's leading suppliers of cereals, pulses and oilseeds, serving the main arable farming regions of eastern and central England. With its former manufacturing plant coming to the end of its useful life last year, the company decided to undertake a total factory modernisation programme. The target was to double its production capacity, as well as enabling better quality control, lower maintenance and improved working conditions.
The new packaging system replaces manual handling of the 25kg and 50kg paper sacks and ensures compliance with the latest EU Directives governing the lifting of heavy loads by personnel within the workplace.
Morray's approach to an automated solution has proved ideal, because its robotic palletising system has allowed a compact, twin track conveyor configuration to suit the very limited site space available. This made it possible to integrate the handling system directly with the two "Newlong" weigh/ bagging and stitch sealing lines, resulting in a low maintenance system that delivers dependable performance with a high level of safety and hygiene.
Explaining the benefits of the installation, Peter Fox, production and contracts director for Daltons, said, "Robotic handling was the only palletising technology considered practical for our requirements, mainly because of restricted configuration of the packaging area. Our need for regular variations in product throughput with ease of changeover from one variety of seed to another was an important factor in the choice of packaging system. Morray was able to install two multi-articulated arm robotic palletisers side by side, which can be operated in unison or independently. This has provided a much higher degree of flexibility for our production schedules than was possible using previous methods" (see Plate 5).
Plate 5 Automated packaging and palletising at Dalton Seeds
Each palletising line operates under separate PLC control and is linked to perform in sequence with the bagging machinery. Display screens give instant visual indication of the actual operation in real-time and operators can call up historical information when required, to check on production targets, using the LCD touch screen display.
Besides monitoring the plant, the system can display programmed settings from a database of up to 30 different stacking pattems. The Morray robot can be "taught" new patterns of palletising, following which, it will repeat the programmed cycle indefinitely, with a consistent level of accuracy and speed of repetition.
According to Mr Fox, the new system has reduced the opportunity for human error and has ensured accurate pallet assembly without the risk of inaccuracies or inadvertent damage associated with manual handling.
For further editorial information, please contact: Peter Schwier, Morray Engineering, Anglia Way, Braintree, Essex CM7 3RG, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1376 322722; Fax: +44 (0) 1376 323277; E-mail: sales@morray.com; Web Site: www.morray.com