Page 46 - Packaging News Magazine Sep-Oct 2019

46
LINE CONTROL & AUTOMATION
A new Pal for Nestlé
When Nestlé needed to automate the palletising at its Special.T factory in Orbe, Switzerland, it turned to the CoboAccess_Pal solution from Sidel, which has boosted its pallet quality and made life easier for its workers.
www.packagingnews.com.au
September-October 2019
WITH the global tea market forecast to grow by $7.9 billion between 2017-22
thanks to trends such as premiumisation, exotic fla- vours, and health positioning, Nestlé is addressing the increasing demand with its
Special.T capsule brand.
The Orbe plant, which manufac-
tures the Special.T capsules, was in need of an industrial, safe, and easy- to-use cobotic palletising solution to automate its operations, says Cédric Rey, fill and pack maintenance and improvement manager at Nestlé.
“In the past, this plant, equipped with low and medium speed lines,
was handling palletising manually. As volume and productivity needed to increase, we were looking to use cobotic palletising to avoid repeti- tive non-ergonomic tasks for opera- tors. We wanted them to handle activities with higher added value,” he says.
Nestlé worked with long-time partner Sidel, which was developing a new cobotic palletising solution, to install what Rey calls a robust, precise, and user-friendly answer to the challenge of pallet stability.
“At our Orbe site, best in class pallet quality is absolute key, as our cases with the tea capsules are very light, long, and narrow.
ABOVE: A new Sidel cobotic palletiser has made life easy for Nestlé workers.
BELOW LEFT: Cobotic palletising reduces repetitive tasks for operators.
BELOW: CoboAccess_ Pal is compact, safe and easy to operate, says Sidel.
“This is why accurate case place- ment on the pallet and tight layers are major requirements to guarantee pallet stability, preventing products from moving through the complete supply chain, respecting their full integrity and ultimately ending up in consumers’ hands without suffering any damage,” says Rey.
Operator safety was also vital, he adds, with Nestlé seeking a solution that would not necessitate guard rails.
“It was imperative that the same level of safety would be maintained after switching from manual labour to a cobotic technology, ensuring that the solution is working safely with no fences around it. For us, the user friendliness of the new cobotic solution was extremely important as well; for instance, an intuitive navi- gation of its human-machine inter- face was a must.”
Sidel installed two cobotic palle- tisers downstream, alongside a pair of Cermex SW21 compact side-load- ing case packers. According to Lau- rent Cristol, strategic account direc- tor for Nestlé at Sidel, the solutions feature an industrial automation platform combining PC and PLC.
“This association makes sure the cobot performs better-controlled picking and trajectories, leading to greater pallet quality and stability, instrumental for smooth pallet trans- portation through the supply chain.
“Additionally, they allow for an immediate restarting of the machine in case of potential problems or emer- gency stops, and as such, minimise downtime,” he says.