The Material Handling Blog

With the continued advancement of the automotive industry and the high demand placed on manufacturers, is it time to automate your machine tending operation?

A Robotic Document Inserter can accurately place the proper paperwork into your case or carton every time and can ease the demand on your operational team.

With recent innovations in technology, Robotic End of Arm Tooling concepts are rapidly becoming a reality in today's manufacturing environment. These innovations are helping manufacturers increase productivity and efficiency in their operations.

Hundreds of thousands of people have to deal with risky work environments, dodging workplace injuries, and making it home to their families every day. There are industry shifts, however, that are seeking to reduce the need for utilizing human labor in these inherently risky operations and shifting them to safer tasks in the facility.

In a robotic application, many times the goals are safety, labor-cost, throughput, or ergonomics. Once the system type is defined, technical requirements are stated, and the goals are established, one of the most crucial ingredients to a successful project is an efficient system layout.

Bastian Robotics recently redesigned and upgraded our robotic bag palletizing End of Arm Tool (EoAT) to accommodate a wider range of products with the same base tool. Similar to past renditions, this tool still has a clamshell design and interfaces with our custom bag pick conveyor.

Industrial robots have been associated with the automotive industry ever since their inception over 50 years ago. Back in 1962, Unimation’s UNIMATE was installed in General Motors’ New Jersey plant, making it the very first industrial robot to ever be used by a major manufacturer. However, it wasn’t until about 20 years later when industrial robots truly became synonymous with the auto industry.

We’re hearing more and more from material handling and packaging automation facilities that having spare parts on hand is a luxury they can’t afford. But what is your facility sacrificing if your production line comes to a screeching halt when a component fails?

In this month’s project highlight, we’re diving into a recent project in which we used the auxiliary axis on a robot to control the sweeper bar on a row forming conveyor. This allowed us to add an additional axis of integrated motion to the robot, giving us 7-axes of motion.

In the automation world, safety is of the utmost importance. Not only do industrial robotics and other automated material handling systems perform difficult tasks that keep personnel out of unsafe and ergonomically difficult conditions, but these same automation systems must be inherently safe for personnel to work around as well. Read: Improve Automation System Safety

When deciding what machine tending robot best fits your application, it is important to look at a number of criteria and weigh the pros and cons of each to figure out which robot is the best fit.

As government regulations become more stringent, retailer demands continue to increase, and competition intensifies, the need for robots has never been more imperative for success in the food and beverage industry.