Growing our family of solutions, standardizing processes, and increasing ease-of-use at interpack 2014 held in Düsseldorf, Germany, from May 8-14.
Over the past few years, ABB Robotics has begun a transition into a new era of robotics—one in which solutions are thought of as complete systems instead of discrete pieces, industrial robots become even more flexible, standardized solutions reduce complexity, and new tools make it easier than ever to implement robotic systems. Along with our partners, we are focusing on intimate collaboration to achieve the best solutions possible. As the largest and most important trade fair for packaging in the world, ABB has chosen interpack 2014 as the natural venue to showcase a variety of technologies that highlight all of these things.
For nearly 15 years, ABB’s IRB 360 FlexPicker® has been the leader in state-of-the-art high speed robotic picking and packing technology. Building on its previous achievements, the FlexPicker family now includes variants with payloads of 1-8 kg and reaches of 800-1600 mm—meaning there is an IRB 360 for almost every need. All FlexPickers also now benefit from a re-engineered tool flange which can accommodate larger grippers, allowing for efficient handling of flow wrapped products at high speeds from an indexing belt. The ABB booth at interpack 2014 will provide an opportunity to see all of these new developments firsthand.
ABB Robotics’ standardized packaging cell will also be on display. It is designed to box individually-packaged products at very high speeds and is capable of synchronizing the conveyer with the robot to achieve superior conveyor tracking performance. This enables customers to optimize the balance of motion between the conveyer and the robot and can process up to 450 items per minute depending on the combination of conveyer performance and chosen grippers. Lead time for installation of the packaging cell has been significantly reduced as a result of standardization—delivering significant cost savings.
A demo of our new Picking PowerPac will highlight how customers can save weeks, even months, of valuable validation and commissioning time while minimizing onsite risk and improving line efficiency. By condensing ABB’s advanced application experience into a comprehensive and truly easy-to-use complement to ABB’s PickMaster 3 and RobotStudio software, the performance of picking lines can be improved with thorough optimization in the virtual world before lines are built in the real world. This reduces a significant barrier to implementing robots and solves the problem of finding trained and experienced robot programmers by addressing the growing need for a simple programming method for complicated picking systems.
An interactive Remote Service demonstration also features new technology for immediate troubleshooting, automated backups, and life cycle support. This new technology is at the heart of ABB Robotics Customer Service’s shift from preventive to predictive maintenance because of its ability to identify issues before they become serious problems. If a problem does occur, an alarm is sent to ABB’s Service team and the customer operator, who can choose to fix it over the phone or to have an ABB service technician come to their site.
The ABB Booth at interpack 2014 is full of cutting edge and useful technology for virtually all packaging applications. With some of ABB’s foremost packaging experts on hand to answer attendees’ questions, this is something you don’t want to miss.