Notes

Robotic Potato Packing
Using robotic automation to pack potatoes is an increasingly common practice in modern agriculture. Whether you're producing fresh, frozen, or processed potatoes, there's a robotic solution to help you do it. Read on to learn more about the mGrip soft gripper from Soft Robotics and the UniPaker robotic pick-and-place cell.

Robotic potato packing

Robotic potato packing can greatly improve the productivity of a food production facility. The automated process eliminates the need for humans to handle the potatoes and reduces returns. The robots place the potatoes in MUs with gentle handling at a maximum drop height of 25mm, avoiding any damage to the potatoes. They also build a neat stack during transportation. When full, the stillages are automatically indexed and taken away for despatch.

In order to increase efficiency, Tasteful Selections needed a robotic solution to streamline their packing process. They wanted to minimize the amount of human contact while maintaining the highest standards of food safety and quality. They chose an automated system from Schneider Packaging Equipment, an authorized Fanuc systems integrator. This technology provides recipes for a series of layers on a pallet and optimizes the overall packing process.

RMGroup supplied JBA Potatoes with an automated robotic palletising system. This line collects 25kg potato bags from an existing packaging line and automatically stacks them onto pallets using an ABB IRB 6400. The new system was installed within a week of arriving at the facility.

UniPaker robotic pick-and-place cell

A new robotic pick-and-place cell has been installed in a Morrisons fresh produce depot. Engineered by Brillopak in partnership with the Rushden team, the new system is designed to reduce waste while enhancing presentation and product handling. The UniPaker robotic cell uses a new automated technique for loading the bags. It has a maximum reach of 1130mm and a payload of five kilograms.

The UniPaker robotic pick-and place cell is designed to achieve an ideal balance between speed and gentle picking and placing, especially when loading crate-loaded perishable products. It can incorporate one, two, or three parallel arm delta robots into a single crate-packing cell. Its flexible design makes it suitable for a range of applications.

Brillopak has built its first UniPAKer robotic cell for a retail customer. It is already implementing the system to pack bags of carrots into plastic retailer crates at speeds of up to 100 ppm.

Soft Robotics' mGrip soft gripper

Soft Robotics recently announced the mGrip, a modular, on-demand soft robotic gripper kit. The system enables users to build production-ready soft robotic systems in a short time. The gripper is made of special silicones, and its flexible structure makes it easy to clean. Robotic Potato allows it to gently handle sensitive objects without damaging them. Its versatility allows it to be used for assembly and manipulation tasks. It is also designed to work safely with humans and provide ease of handling.

The mGrip is easy to integrate and is capable of handling many different products, including those with irregular shapes and delicate materials. Its flexible and ergonomic design mimics a human hand, which makes it ideal for handling a variety of food products. It can handle products of different sizes and shapes, including chicken, beef, bread, and tomatoes. It can handle multiple SKUs, increasing productivity and reducing waste.

The mGrip soft robotic gripper is powered by a hydraulic system. It contains six ultra-soft silicone tentacles that are attached to a three-dimensional plastic palm. Each silicone tentacle is hollow, with one side bonded to stiffer nanofibers. When water is pumped through the device, the silicone tentacles curl around the stiffer side. The researchers say the system produces less than 0.4 kilopascals of pressure. Despite the small pressure it produces, the jellyfish showed no visible signs of stress. It is being developed for use in research, but is not yet ready for commercialization.

Tasteful Selections' state-of-the-art production technology

Tasteful Selections needed a faster and more efficient way to process potatoes. They also needed to reduce the number of human touchpoints while ensuring the highest level of food safety and quality. With robotic automation, the company can now do just that. Using this state-of-the-art technology, Tasteful Selections' processing lines now have the speed of a production line that can process up to one million potatoes per hour. It's easy to see how robotic automation can help Tasteful Selections grow at a faster pace and remain committed to quality bite-sized potatoes.

Since Tasteful Selections owns the entire production process, it can benefit from the best technology available for potato production. The company wanted to expand its production capacity, while optimizing the entire production process. To achieve this goal, Tasteful Selections sought out the latest technology from Schneider Packaging Equipment, a Fanuc Authorized Systems Integrator. One of the company's advanced robotic technology platforms, the OptiStak, uses algorithms to create recipes for the optimum configuration of boxes on a pallet.

Robotic automation helps Tasteful Selections achieve high production efficiencies by reducing the number of labor hours needed. The mGrip soft gripper, for example, helps the robot better control the bag's position to avoid dropping. Moreover, its pneumatic air pressure allows the operator to tighten or loosen its grip to fit different sizes of potatoes. In roboticpotato.com to this, the mGrip allows the machine to know how many bags need to be placed in a box and where to place them.
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