Page 66 - Food&Drink magazine April-May 2023

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Schneider automates processes with UR5 cobots
MACHINERY MATTERS MARCH – APRIL 2023 ■ 6
French-founded automation giant, Schneider Electric,
has partnered with Universal Robots to automate its manual and repetitive processes
with UR5 cobots, freeing up staff’s time and enabling them to instead focus more on value-adding tasks.
Schneider’s plant in Bulgaria predominantly focused on the production and assembly of mini circuit breakers, deployed two UR5 cobots to automate repetitive manual labour tasks, such as picking and placing power breakers and boxes.
The automation giant delivers solutions to homes, buildings, data centres, infrastructure
and industries, by combining energy technologies,
real-time automation, software and services.
The plant employs more than 500 employees comprising
of operators, administration and support staff.
“The cobots have been deployed to tackle non- ergonomic, repetitive, and boring daily tasks. This allows operators to be more focused on product quality and machine performance,” explained Antoniy Petrov, automation engineer at Schneider Electric.
Schneider Electric strives to remain at the forefront of innovation, and is constantly seeking out modern and reliable solutions to enhance its operations. According
to the company, the UR5
cobots precisely delivers this – more efficient and productive operations.
“Our cobots were programmed to pick
power breakers from the manufacturing line and place them into boxes,” said Masayuki Mase, country manager for Universal Robots Oceania.
“Once this task is completed, the cobot picks and places
an empty box to be filled
again, until the cart is filled with 10 boxes. Once the
batch is finished, the cobot alerts the operator that it’s time for changeover.”
As one of the smallest cobots in the range, Mase said the UR5 is lightweight, flexible and tackles an array of tasks with ease.
“It offers a reach of 850mm, a payload of 5kg, a footprint of 149mm, and weighs in at just 20.6kg,” Mase added.
“This medium-duty robot integrates seamlessly and makes quick work of all tasks – as experienced
at Schneider Electric.”
On this plant, the cobots
follow processes like emergency stops. The cobot works fully autonomously, and the operator is only needed for the changeover.
“The cobot can reject full conveyors to provide a safe working area for the operator to remove the units, which are unfit for use,” Petrov said.
“It can also alert the operator when changeover
is needed, and handled manual requests from the operator to stop operation and move into a safe position.
“The UR5s return on investment in this particular setting is around 24 months.”
Speaking on the uptake of automation in the electronics and technology sector, Mase has seen strong demand across all major sectors – including electronics and technology.
“Covid-19 highlighted the need for independent supply chains by local manufacturers,” Mase concluded. ■
KHS offers flexible switch to alternative energies
KHS now offers conversion of its shrink tunnels to alternative sources of energy (electricity, natural or liquid gas), securing for its customers an economical supply of energy for the long-term.
KHS has put together an extensive tool kit of conversion variants, which significantly reduces dependence on a single source of energy and increases the security of supply for its customers.
“Our customers can opt for conversion from one source of energy to another, and they also have the option of switching the system between two types of gas or flexibly converting it to electricity,” said Bernd Pauls, service sales support manager at KHS.
“Conversion back to a gas supply can then be performed by the customer as required, and greatly differ in their nature
and complexity.”
Conversions are available for practically
all existing shrink tunnels and are installed by KHS specialists specifically trained for the job. There is usually no change in machine control for the operating personnel.
With the reversible option, the setup is changed by the customer either digitally in a matter of minutes using a selector switch on the HMI or by changing a module over, which takes just a few hours to complete.
In addition to providing technical support on site, KHS also delivers extensive advice regarding energy optimisation of installed systems, which includes a number of energy-saving packages.
On the shrink tunnel, one of these is a standby option where on a production stop the temperature can be manually or automatically lowered by about 50°C.
KHS offers its customers advice and information on the various conversion options and their specific benefits in its supplementary global Technical Talks webinar series. ■
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