The M-20iB/25C’s highly rigid bilateral design offers smooth motion at its highest joint speeds, Jhaveri says, and it provides internally routed utilities offering solenoid valves, camera cables, Ethernet, multipurpose actuator sensor interface cable, and EE connection with power/signal interface.
“Thanks to it being a sealed structure with integrated utilities and motors, utility connections on the M-20iB/25C’s robot arm are protected uniquely from any harsh washdown environment to facilitate maximum uptime and reliability,” Jhaveri mentions. “This slim profile robot also has the provision for either a rear cable connection or a bottom cable connection. And its smooth surfaces are coated with FDA compliant coating that is safe and non-toxic for incidental food contact.”
Jhaveri says all FANUC food-grade robots, including the new M-20iB/25C, offer NSF-H1 grade lubricants for enclosed gear-boxes in robot joint axes. “This minimizes potential food safety risks and toxicity hazards in the event a grease leak or contamination may be introduced in the food products when robots are installed directly above, or robots move over, food products during packaging operations,” he relates.
FANUC also offers a complete line of palletizing robots with payload capacities ranging from 140 kg to 700 kg.
Complimenting FANUC’s advanced intelligent robots, Jhaveri says, is the company’s iRPickTool software, which provides the ability to efficiently identify, pick, and place food items on a moving conveyor belt.
“The software is capable of handling a variety of system layouts,” he notes. “Its features, including advanced queue management, support for FANUC’s iRVision, buffering, pre-grouping, servo-conveyor indexing, circular tracking, and circular boundary functionality, are designed to significantly enhance productivity in any operation. The iRPickTool also allows food manufacturers to customize functions to suit their own specific needs, and it enables adaptation to changing production runs and scenarios for high speed line tracking.”
FANUC’s software PalletPRO (simulation) and PalletTool work together to simulate and then run robotic palletizing systems, Jhaveri points out. “These software tools facilitate quick system development and on the fly changes in palletizing systems for increasing productivity and reducing costs,” he relates.
Some of FANUC’s latest software options include seamless integration with Rockwell’s RSLogix and Panelview using Ethernet/IP and being able to jog and teach robot positions and visualize palletizing patterns via remote iPendant functionality for HMI, Jhaveri adds.
“FANUC’s high speed 3D Area Sensor technology provides a detailed 3D map in one quick snap using structured light projection and two cameras,” he continues. “It allows a wide variety of applications, such as bin picking randomly oriented loose food items, and depalletizing materials such as mixed boxes, sacks, and bags with human level intelligence.”
Using the 3D Area Sensor technology, FANUC’s high-resolution iRVision color camera allows sorting of items based on color after they are pulled out of a bin. “Built-in collision avoidance and a part picking algorithm allow setup of vision tools through the robot’s iPendant in just minutes,” Jhaveri says.
FANUC has thousands of robots that are working in hundreds of food-related operations worldwide, he emphasizes. These include a number of different robot families such as the Delta robots (M-2iA/M-3iA), Mini Robots (LR-Mates), Case Packing Robots (M-710iC/50H), and Palletizers (M-410iC).
“These robots are found in all steps of food handling and packaging processes, including primary, secondary, and palletizing,” Jhaveri says. “FANUC offers robots with food industry options like IP69K, food grade grease, and FDA approved paint.”
Integrated Systems
Robots are being integrated with other equipment to enhance food manufacturing and packaging operations.
“One of our clients, a major U.S. nut processor, reports that they are achieving goals for customer acceptance and labor savings using Delkor’s MSP Series casepacker, a system that uses FANUC M-3iA and FANUC M-710iC robots to collate pouches of nuts on a packaging line and then case pack them at speeds up to 150 pouches per minute,” says Rick Gessler, MBA, director of marketing and strategic account management for Delkor Systems Inc., a St. Paul, Minn.-based manufacturer of packaging machinery and an integrating partner of FANUC.
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