Fine-Tuning Robotics

Robotics are gaining use in production, replacing manual functions. By communicating with controllers, they support secure and controlled validation of processes. And managers can flexibly configure robotic motions and robot line integration using dedicated software applications

“We are using computers to run robots faster and smarter and to incorporate smarter devices, such as vision systems. ABB’s robots run on an open architecture. We have had a large product-development emphasis on ease-of-use, so you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to program a robot,” says Richard Tallian, manager of consumer industry markets, robot product sales, ABB (Littleton, CO).

ABB offers a range of robot styles. “You select a robot that fits the move distance you have and that meets your speed requirement. The robot then has to be custom configured. Hardware requires end-of-arm tooling configuration. An integrator may be sequencing multiple application commands into a very unique application,” Tallian says.

Fargo Automation recently introduced a custom-built robot using Allen-Bradley components, designed for compatibility with Allen-Bradley’s Control Logics PLC platform. The robots were employed for pick-and-place functions in recent custom solutions that Fargo has developed for companies in the healthcare and pharmaceutical market.

“After utilizing existing robots in the marketplace for some years, we decided to manufacture our own robots because our customers were having trouble supporting the standard robots offered on the market. What with special software, training, and parts, robots typically require separate control platforms and training support in software programming. By using A-B and other quality components like Alpha gear boxes, our customers can support the equipment themselves with parts available to them locally and by using existing knowledge and software,” says Fargo’s Stewart.

“Allen-Bradley is the preferred control platform used by many U.S. pharmaceutical and medical device companies. We can plug into an existing Allen-Bradley control platform, so people don’t have to add another controller interface. They don’t need us, or another robot manufacturer, to support it,” he says.

Fargo uses robots in custom, fully automated filling, autoclaving, and packing lines developed for several manufacturers producing prefilled syringes. Processes that were previously performed semiautomatically are now automated, with lines using more than 60 servomotors. Companies have doubled syringe production to 400 units per minute.

“We take the product right up to pallet loading. These lines are custom built to customers’ specifications. A line we shipped off recently filled seven semi truckloads,” he says. Servo-driven robots are used for loading and unloading autoclaving trays, nesting syringes tightly to maximize the number in a tray. After sterilization, syringes are denested, labeled, and flow-wrapped at 400 units per minute. “We had to design a system that could handle the syringes at that rate, front to back.” A custom-built cartoner loads autobottom multipack cartons. Five individual robotic heads on a linear slide progressively top-load five cartons at a time as they move through the cartoner. “Oddly shaped barrels with flanges in flow packs don’t nest well. The product has to be oriented with the right counts going into the cartons,” he says. These lines integrate high-speed filling and inspection machines from other vendors, including a high-speed rotary labeler by Accraply (Plymouth, MN).

Fargo works closely with Allen Bradley as a beta site partner in some cases, designing machine control software applications on Rockwell Automation’s Integrated Architecture platform for the custom lines, Stewart says. Fargo has employed robotics to address innovative packaging. “These projects are often driven by marketing. They want to have a certain look or packaging feature.”

For example, in another custom-built integrated project, Fargo is developing a robotic pick-and-place system for an OTC manufacturer that has sought a unique carton for doctor’s office sampling, and a case container for sampling the same product at promotional events.

“Their marketing people wanted this specific closable-door feature [on the doctor’s pack]. They didn’t give any consideration as to what might be out there to make it. This company had preferred vendors, but they were not in the custom automation business,” says Stewart. Fargo Automation is linking a Piltz GmbH (Dresden, Germany) sachet machine with Fargo custom-designed pouch-handling, cartoning, and case-packing machines.

Pouches are moved from the sachet machinery on an eight-lane cleated-belt conveyor, where they are tracked and counted. A transfer system conveys some of the product to the sample cartons and some to the bulk case packs. The cartoner erects autobottom cartons with built-in doors, and then a robot top-loads specified counts into the cartons. Product destined for cases is counted and falls to a conveyor, then to a bucket, where it is transferred to an erected case shipper.

In another project, Fargo built a custom cartoning solution incorporating intermittent-motion robotic top-loading for packing glucometer reagent cartridges in a multipack box. The manufacturer was manually picking and cartoning Alu/Alu 3 ¥ 21¼2 ¥ 1-in. blisters made on a Micron PharmaWorks Special Edition Klockner CP-11 cold-form thermoformer.

First, the cartoner erects autobottom cartons with tab and slot closures. Then flat blanks used as dividers are folded and inserted. A four-axis robot picks four random flowing blisters from a conveyor, placing two cartridges at a time into two cartons. Sensors signal the location of product on the conveyor so the robot can locate the correct pick point.

After the correct count of blister trays has been loaded into the carton, product-specific calibration cards are picked and verified and placed into the indexed cartons. Additional literature for patients and physicians is added to the carton after bar codes are verified, all by robotic top-loading. Cartons are submitted to a custom-built checkweigher that autorejects bad boxes before conveying to the downstream equipment. Fargo wrote a data acquisition package, linked by Ethernet to the customer’s SCADA system, for line performance and efficiency reporting. —David Vaczek