An industrial robotic arm is operating inside a safety cell enclosed by a black wire mesh cage with yellow and red support posts. A control panel with a screen and buttons sits outside the cage.

Automated Bottle Loading & Packaging Machine

Automated Bottle Loading & Packaging Machine

This project was presented to SDC in search of a cost effective, fully-automated, and configurable pressware packaging system. The pressware was packaged into trays and the trays were stacked to build a completed pallet.

Technical Components & Technologies

Robotic parts handling
Vision inspection systems
PLC based machine controls
Servo indexing transfer conveyors
Automated tray packing with tray stacking and de-stacking
Complete machine safety system
Robotic arm manipulator stands within its safety enclosure made of black wire fencing. The arm, mainly white and gray, reaches out with a multi-gripper tool attached to its end, implying it picks up and places objects.
An industrial robotic arm is operating inside a safety cell enclosed by a black wire mesh cage with yellow and red support posts. A control panel with a screen and buttons sits outside the cage.
A high-angle view of an automated robotic assembly cell within a manufacturing facility. The cell is enclosed by a black mesh safety fence with yellow and red supports which create a barrier around the machinery and robotic arms inside.
Robotic arm manipulator stands within its safety enclosure made of black wire fencing. The arm, mainly white and gray, reaches out with a multi-gripper tool attached to its end, implying it picks up and places objects.
An industrial robotic arm is operating inside a safety cell enclosed by a black wire mesh cage with yellow and red support posts. A control panel with a screen and buttons sits outside the cage.
A high-angle view of an automated robotic assembly cell within a manufacturing facility. The cell is enclosed by a black mesh safety fence with yellow and red supports which create a barrier around the machinery and robotic arms inside.

The Solution:

SDC chose a dual robot solution that interfaced with SDC designed staging equipment and the customer’s lehr.

A dual position indexing dial was utilized to stage the packaging material. Half of the indexing dial was accessible to the operator for staging an empty pallet and empty trays in change tool magazines. A pallet of packaged pressware was assembled on the half of the dial accessible to the automated system.

The pressware exited the lehr in a random orientation. A high-speed vision guided SCARA robot was utilized to individually pick pressware and stage them on a servo indexing conveyor. The pitch of the conveyor index and the lateral placement of the pressware on the conveyor were utilized in conjunction to match the cavity matrix of the packaging trays.

A six-axis robot was utilized to unload an empty tray from the magazine on the indexing dial and place it in the correct location on the pallet of package pressware. The robot then unloaded a matrix of pressware from the indexing conveyor and loaded it into the empty tray on the pallet. The cycle was repeated until the pallet of package pressware was completed. The robot also installed tie sheets periodically for stability. Upon pallet completion, the pallet was indexed out and the pre-staged packaging material was indexed into the automated system.

Tooling and equipment parameters were developed for different pressware products and packaging configurations. SDC was successful in implementing automated inspection checks of the pressware.