Proco Machinery Inc. will present new automation technology for packaging to the blow molding industry at NPE2018.
The Mississauga, Ontario-based company will demonstrate two collaborative robotic systems, the Half-Cube Palletizer and the Robo Packer, at Booth W983. Both products were developed with a focus on efficiency, according to Vice President of Sales Siva Krish.
"These systems are being designed in such a way that they complement the production line and provide simplified operation, a smaller footprint, and enhanced efficiencies," Krish said in a news release. "These collaborative robotic systems reduce the handling of the container and provide an excellent return on investment."
Proco says its Robo Packer is a breakthrough cobot system suited for pick and place, assembly and packaging applications at half the cost of conventional automation. The system works interactively with human co-workers, requires no special guarding, and can easily be trained for new tasks, according to the company.
RoboPacker is an integrated packaging module that comes with a six-axis robotic arm, infeed conveyor and box conveyor mounted on a sub-frame with leveling pads and caster wheels for quickly moving and setting up production. The system can be supplied with one of three different robotic arm payloads depending on the task and productivity level needed. It can be configured to pack all necks up, all necks down, or a custom solution.
Proco says one customer used RoboPacker as part of an automated system to produce wide-mouth canisters at a rate of 30 bottles per minute per line with an 18-pack configuration for each line. The customer went from a three-person shift to a one-person shift for each line and saw a return on its investment in about 15 months.
Proco also says it has already sold some of the Half-Cube Palletizers, which can work alongside employees or independently, to blow molders of PET containers. The system needs minimal operator input, can be adapted to a variety of repetitive manufacturing situations, and can cut the cost to palletize containers in half compared to conventional automation, the company adds.
The operator need only place trays in the magazine. When the palletizing is done, an alarm notifies the operator to pull out the pallet and place another tray in the magazine.
The palletizer system also is supplied with a six-axis cobot arm, infeed conveyor, pallet lift magazine, and a pick and place magazine on a subframe with leveling pads and caster wheels. The palletizer can be configured to pack all necks up or down or it can be customized.
At NPE2018, Proco will run several bottle packaging systems using robots from Universal Robots to demonstrate collaborative systems for "layer pack" tooling wide-mouth containers and "single row" tooling for 16-ounce PET bottles.
Proco Machinery has been in business more than 35 years with a focus on labor-saving automated machinery and equipment.
