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LoginRobotic Palletizer Lowers Unit Costs, Increases Efficiency for Electronics Manufacturer
"We are operating at a level of efficiency we’ve never achieved before”
A Dallas-based manufacturer of electronic products needed to reduce its cost per unit shipped in order to remain competitive and the preferred ‘vendor of choice’ for its customers. Faced with escalating labor costs and the need to remain competitive, it contacted Cisco-Eagle to help optimize its manufacturing process.
Cisco-Eagle provides a combination of high-quality products and services for ‘Points of Automation’, comprised of: (1) material handling, (2) process automation, (3) robotics, (4) in-house industrial controls, (5) programming, and (6) warehouse storage solutions.
After conducting a facility walkthrough and discussing needs and manufacturing processes, Cisco- Eagle helped identify inefficiencies in outbound product flow from manufacturing to shipping.
As previously configured, separate manufacturing lines are used for each of 4 products: the Econo; the Silver; the Gold; and the high-end Platinum. In the previous system, a warehouse worker hand-palletized outbound product on a floor-staged pallet at the end of each line. When the pallet load was complete, forklifts picked up the completed pallet and moved it to a floor staging area for stretch-wrapping. A second forklift operator moved the pallet to the Stretchwrapper, and then delivered the wrapped pallet to shipping.
More touches than needed
This process required "multiple touches” of the product and required 6 people to palletize, stretch-wrap, and move the pallet to shipping.
In addition to these resource commitments, Workers’ Compensation claims were becoming more common due to repetitive handling and the need for warehouse workers to hand-palletize product at layers beyond easy ergonomic reach.
To reduce the cost per unit shipped and to address the compensation claims, Cisco-Eagle provided a Point of Automation utilizing a robot to handle the palletizing tasks and a series of conveyors to bring all four manufacturing lines to a central robotic palletizing cell.
This system automatically conveys pallets into and out of the Stretchwrapper, and then transports the wrapped pallet out to shipping. This solution eliminated manual product handling between manufacturing and shipping. Each manufacturing line produces cased product at a rate of 7-8 cases per minute for a total combined throughput of 32 cases per minute, maximum. The palletizing robot can easily achieve 15 pick and place cycles per minute.
To achieve proper throughput rate, the robot’s end effector tooling can pick 3 cases per cycle, for a total capacity of 45 cases per minute. The additional picking capacity is needed to allow for time lost when indexing pallets in and out of the work cell, and for when individual cases are placed in position for interlocking tier patterns.
Using Hytrol EZ-Logic Zero Pressure Accumulation conveyors, each of the conveyor lines have been lengthened to mesh with the robotic palletizing workcell. Outbound product is conveyed to the workcell and then accumulated. When three boxes of product are present at the discharge of each line, they are released onto a Minimum Pressure Roller conveyor that delivers them into the workcell and properly positions them via a fixed end stop and guide rails.
An Omni Metalcraft pallet dispenser is used to release a single pallet onto Chain Driven Live Roller conveyor, which conveys the empty pallet into the robotic workcell. A pop-up-stop halts the pallet in the desired palletizing location, and an underside puller is used to justify the pallet against a fixed side guide to accurately position the pallet for palletizing.
The palletizing robot is an ABB Robotics Model IRB2000 utilizing a vacuum cup tooling end effector with 3 separate venturi vacuum pump systems to allow for individual case releases as needed for the interlocking tier patterns. The workcell perimeter is guarded with a four-sided safety fence with an electrically interlocked access door, that stop motors in the workcell if opened. Additionally, safety light curtains are used to protect all openings in the safety fence at all points where cases and pallets enter and exit the workcell.
With the empty pallet and enough accumulated product present on an inbound conveyor run to fulfill a complete pallet, the palletizing robot initiates a pick and place cycle that simultaneously picks up to three cases and places them onto the pallet per the correct layer/tier configuration. This sequence repeats, with each successive release of three product cases into the workcell until the pallet is fully palletized. The completed pallet is conveyed out of the workcell, and an empty pallet is brought in behind it and positioned for the next palletizing sequence.
After palletizing, full pallets are conveyed to the stretch wrapper using Hytrol’s 25-CREZD Zero Pressure Accumulation Chain Driven Live Roller conveyor. The pallets are accumulated and released into the stretchwrapper for wrapping. Complete, wrapped pallets are then conveyed out to shipping using the same style of conveyor.
"Cisco-Eagle’s solution for us has met and surpassed all of our expectations,” said the company’s CEO. "Not only have we significantly reduced our costs per unit shipped, we have also been able to increase the amount of product that we ship per day because the palletizing robot does not incur any of the inherent inefficiencies that you have with manually handling product. Also not having to spend all of the time shuffling product and pallets around before it gets to shipping has greatly reduced finished goods loading time.”
