COMAU has recently presented two DEMO cells with DELTA AUTOMATION and SISCODATA partners dedicated to the bakery and pastry industry. "With automation there is more taste," a game of words that emphasize how robotic automation is a real advantage for food and beverage companies.
In the integrated cell of Delta Automation, a Racer3 is used in a pasta pack labeling activity with the support of a 3D vision system that allows precise placement of the label by perfectly detecting the position of the edge of the pack.
This system makes it possible to obtain a high level of precision and uniformity of eyelet. The machine that performs eyebrow is handled via an easily adjustable electronic axis and high flexibility allows producing a wide range of sizes with fast-changing gears.
SISCODATA proposes instead a cell with Racer 7-1.4 in a bread handling handling application with three different types of suction cup, clamp and vacuum pneumatic device.
In this demo the robot is able to handle very different bakery products such as grissini, breads, croissants, donuts, biscuits, tarts with jam and cream, vol-au-vent, snacks packed in flowpack using different pliers depending on type of product to be picked up. The same clamp can pick different products by nature, shape and material; moreover, the removal of fragile and delicate products takes place without creating signs of damage (even on surfaces covered with cream or jam).
Each type of gripper uses different physical principles and, in specific cases, a very flexible fingers or a "levitation" pliers are used which does not damage the surface of the covered products.
In the real system, the teflon baking tray comes from the cooking zone to the catch zone and these special pliers are able to pick up the various products with great precision and reposition them at a specific point after the socket.
The robot used can also be equipped with several types of clamps to handle the various products using an automatic clamping gear.
Daniele Toni