Carlsberg Breweries is one of the world's largest brewing groups. Its core markets are the Nordic region, Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom and Asia. The breweries sell around 7,000 million liters of beer via subsidiaries and affiliated companies and 2,000 million liters of mineral water and soft drinks. Carlsberg's location in Sweden is part of the international Carlsberg Breweries Group , and was formed by a merger of the Swedish Pripps-Ringnes Group and Carlsberg A/S of Denmark.
Carlsberg's brewery in Sweden produces large quantities of many different products that need to be palletized for shipment. The company had been using a layering palletizer which was sufficient for palletizing one continuous standard product. However, changes within the consumer beverage industry necessitated the need for the company to produce and palletzize many different types of products and the layering palletizer was no longer the most efficient method.
The traditional palletizing system required reconfiguration when new products were presented to it resulting in significant costly down time for the company. The company required a new fast, flexible and more efficient method to accommodate their changing palletizing needs.
The company researched and studied the advantages of a six-axis robot palletizing system. Today its products are palletized by a KUKA KR 500 robot with a load capacity of 500 kg. The robot stacks trays of bottles fed to it by two conveyor lines. The trays are distributed on the two conveyors in a pre-specified stacking pattern.
Robots help reduce downtime for beverage palletizing.
A pusher then moves the trays from the conveyor to the robot's gripper staging area where the robot then centers the trays and transfers the layer to the pallet. Depending on the size of the bottles, the robot picks up either ten trays with 3 x 5 bottles each, or nine trays with 6 x 4 bottles each.
The number of layers is likewise based on the size of the bottles (maximum of six layers for 0.5-liter bottles). The trays are centered on the pallet by an external axis guided by the PC-based robot controller. If necessary, cardboard slipsheets are inserted by an automatic external device. The robot constantly varies the stacking pattern, thus enhancing the stability of the palletized load. To accommodate the moist environment of the facility the robot's wrist carries an IP 65 certification rating.
The main advantage of the new system compared to the old layering palletizing system is its significantly greater flexibility. The heavy-duty robot can be reconfigured quickly for new bottle sizes by means of simple program changes. The six-axis robot also features an exceptionally long reach and enhanced flexibility provided by its custom-tailored gripper. Currently the KR 500 palletizes 34 different products in bottles ranging from 0.35 to 2.0 liters.
The KUKA robot's flexibility allows the user to respond quickly to changing market conditions by easily processing new products. The robot achieves a throughput of 40,000 half-liter bottles per hour. The KUKA KR 500 robot takes up significantly less space than the old layering palletizer freeing up valuable manufacturing floor space. Additionally, the new robotic palletizing system has improved the company's cycle times and positioning accuracy and lowered maintenance requirements.
Kevin Kozuszek is Director of Marketing at Kuka Robotics Corporation in Clinton Township, Mich.
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