Reliable depalletizing of jam jars

Our specially developed robot system guarantees fast, reliable handling of jam jars at Hero. This includes depalletizing, sorting and palletizing the jars delivered in different sizes and layer patterns.

The challenge 

Hero is an international food group based in Lenzburg. In the fully automated jam production process, empty packaging jars have to be placed on fast infeed conveyors from stacks of pallets. The jars - in a wide variety of sizes and shapes - are stacked on wooden pallets and separated in layers by plastic interlayers.

The task was to clear the jars layer by layer, convey them and finally transfer them neatly one after the other onto a fast link conveyor. The interlayers were to be removed and stacked at a dispensing point for reuse. In addition, the system in the hygiene zone had to be robust and compact.

The solution 

At the heart of the system is a large industrial robot that performs its work with millimeter precision on a stable steel frame. A new stack of jars on a pallet is fed to the robot fully automatically via a conveyor belt through safety light grids with a muting function. A powerful lift - driven by an integrated additional robot axis with a position encoder - lifts the entire pallet until the first layer is ready for pick-off. 

The robot with multifunctional gripper pushes the entire layer onto a wide link belt. Special clamping grippers hold the interlayer in place. The jars are now separated sensitively and synchronously and conveyed in rows and links via a fast link conveyor to the next process machine. The robot picks up the interlayer using a vacuum gripper. Finally, empty pallets are removed and stacked by the robot.

The project

Several individual solutions were combined compactly by means of a clever arrangement. With the options of an additional robot axis, line tracking and switching on-off safe areas, the robot technology was utilized at the highest level. The system is highly flexible and can be easily adapted to the varying influences.