The line includes a CE35 Case Erector, Robotic Top Load Case Packer, CS25 Case Sealer, and Robotic Palletizer with pallet and slip sheet dispenser.

Key system highlights include:

• Two Scara robots, each loading two cases at once, share the workload to achieve the desired speed in a small footprint
• Flap control mechanism secures case in loading position and avoids snagging during placement of product into the case
• Multifunctioning tooling minimizes palletizer footprint
• Common and intuitive machine interface across the line supporting easy and fast changeover to new preloaded recipes

A long-time customer of Pearson, this manufacturer of baked goods returned to us once again due to their longstanding satisfaction with our equipment reliability, operator-friendly user interface and dependable 24/7 service support. Regularly running high SKU counts, requiring frequent changeovers, Pearson’s solution once again needed to minimize not only unplanned but also planned downtime and enable operators with little experience to be independently successful.

In this application, two highly compact Scara robots share the workload to achieve the desired speed. Empty cases—formed on Pearson’s CE35 Case Erector – enter the packing cell, accumulate in the buffer position before being positioned under flap controls to secure them during the loading process and ensure a smooth product placement. Meanwhile, the cartons with the baked goods convey into the load position on each of the two infeed conveyors, where each robot picks two cartons simultaneously and places them into separate cases. This process repeats itself until the case is full. Once full, the flap control disengages, cases transfer to the takeaway conveyor and continue their journey to Pearson’s CS25 for top sealing.

Once sealed, the cases travel to the palletizer where they accumulate on a tabletop conveyor chain before entering the pick zone and being referenced onto a fixed plate. The robot then picks a row of cases and places it onto the pallet, adding slip sheets between layers as determined by the active recipe. A completed pallet automatically indexes out of the cell through muting light curtains and the robot places a new pallet onto the build station to repeat the cycle. By handling pallets, cases and slip sheets, the robots versatile tool helps reduce the cell’s complexity and overall footprint and the pallet rack is accessible from outside of the cell to ensure minimal interruption of the palletizing operation when new stacks need to be loaded.

To maximize production runs of the many different SKUs, operators rely on Pearson’s highly intuitive user interface that offers an uncluttered design, familiar web-like navigation, interactive guides and live sensor maps that quickly guide them through changeovers and fault-recovery steps. Since every piece of the packaging line uses the same uniform interface, operators are able to easily navigate between machinery.