P R S S I N F O R M A T I O N – Kawasaki Robotics Neuss, March 2010 – round 5 million dogs want to be fed every day art fair in Germany. The market for dog food is big and booming. An indication for this is the rapidly expanding companies pet food GmbH of Mera, Kevelaer, has automated a new production line with the help of Kawasaki robotics. For almost 60 years the name Mera highest quality in the animal feed industry stands for. MERA dog means permium quality, and the company has one of the most successful manufacturers for five star”dog food is made. Our extensive range includes dog and cat pet food in the areas of high premium and premium, as well as dog snacks and dog biscuits, which are manufactured in modern baking lines.
In the course of its expansion, the company has installed a new back road to the production of dog snacks, which was connected to the optimization of the workflow directly with the filling and packaging plant. “After the treats” the oven have left, they are bottled in big packs and fed through a mixing station by means of conveyor belt of the filling system. After filling in boxes, the containers arrive on a conveyor belt to the palletizing cell. There, placed an empty pallet on the space provided a Kawasaki robot type FD50 first and provides them with a print paper as a moisture barrier. Then the palletizing process proper starts.
After alignment, the cardboard is placed by the robot on the range with a vacuum gripper. This process is repeated, until the range is fully assembled. The robot with a vacuum gripper system takes care of all these processes. A tool change is not necessary here. Five different packing patterns are stored in the control. After the palletizing process continues the stacked on pallet for a place on the conveyor belt, with a fork lift truck to manually eject and led to the camp. The new packaging system for Mera is based on a development of VANDERLOO company and Kawasaki. The VANDERLOO GmbH with seat in Saerbeck exists since January 2006. The company was of the owner and Managing Director Maik Althermeler founded and has specialised amongst others in robot applications. Heart of the system is the compact palletizing cell, which guarantees an efficient and variable usage and can be integrated in new but already existing production facilities without major modifications. The cell is completely on a very compact, trucks enabled base plate with threaded holes as the base engine for different cell concepts. The overall structure including the programming takes place advance at the systems House, minimizing the integration time at the customer. The cell is supplied fully assembled on a conventional truck, the end customer. Through this approach, the project lead time weeks shortens from the idea to the completion on turnaround times between 4-8.