FANUC to display industrial, collaborative robots for food and packaging

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A CRX-20iA/L robot slides a tray of cookies onto a rack. | Source: FANUC

FANUC America plans to showcase its latest packaging and processing innovations in Booth N-5332 next week at Pack Expo in Chicago. From food-grade collaborative robots to stainless industrial robots, it claimed it will demonstrate uninterrupted speed, reliability, accuracy, and dexterity—all while maintaining food safety—in real-world applications.

FANUC said its advanced automation provides high-quality solutions to common industry problems, including production, supply chain, and labor shortages. The Rochester Hills, Mich.-based company will feature industrial robots and cobots including:

FANUC to show picking, packing, and palletizing

The company asserted that its systems can deliver reliability and accuracy that minimize error, reduce product waste, and enhance overall quality control. FANUC said its demos will directly address common industry challenges.

A CRX-10iA robot picking objects from a box. | Source: FANUC

Collaborative robots

• Food-grade cobot bakery tray load and unload with iRVision: In this new dual-cobot cell, attendees can see the controlled loading and unloading of cookies on bakery trays. Demonstrating its impressive 1,418 mm (55.8 in.) of reach, the FANUC CRX-20iA/L food-grade cobot will use 3DV/400 iRVision mounted to its arm to locate and unload cookies from a tray and place them onto a conveyor, simulating a cookie-baking operation. A second CRX-20iA/L will then use a bakery tray to catch the cookies coming off the end of the conveyor and then place the now-full trays onto a cart.
• Food-grade cobot palletizing: Shown for the first time at PACK EXPO, the FANUC CRX-30iA food-grade cobot—with a 30 kg (66.1 lb.) payload and 1,756 mm (69.1 in.) of reach—will use PalletTool 3 software to efficiently palletize two pallets from a single infeed using a multi-case gripper.
• Intuitive cobot programming: In this kitting demonstration, attendees are able to use drag-and-drop icon based programming on the FANUC Tablet TP and three-button wrist to easily kit meat and cheese gift boxes with the CRX-10iA cobot. Suitable for those with little to no robotics experience, FANUC said the cobot’s ease of programming is paired with its reliable technology and sensitive contact detection that allows the CRX-10iA to work safely alongside people.

The M-710 Box Palletizer. | Source: FANUC

Industrial robots

• High-speed picking application with line-tracking tools: The DR-3iB/6 STAINLESS is FANUC’s first stainless-steel, food-grade delta robot for picking and packing primary food products. The company claimed that it sets new benchmarks for payload, speed, reach and sanitation in robotic food handling. Using iRVision and iRPickTool line-tracking software, this demonstration will pick and place randomly oriented fish fillets alongside an SR-12iA/C, showcasing high speeds and product reorientation.
• Food assembly with food-grade robots: Offering a best-in-class work envelope for both upright and invert mount installations, FANUC said its LR Mate 200iD series of tabletop industrial robots will assemble cheeseburgers in this demo. Working alongside the SR-6iA/C will be the LR Mate 200iD/7LC – both food-grade/cleanroom robots – picking and placing buns, burgers, and toppings before removing and reversing order so that the cycle can repeat.
• Automated palletizing and depalletizing: The six-axis M-710iD/50M robot, combined with two iRVision 3DV/1600 vision sensors and the FANUC iPC, will use the iPC’s AI Box Detection software to locate boxes within stock carts. Once located, the robot will depalletize boxes from one cart and utilize PalletTool to palletize them on the opposite cart. With one cart empty, the process will be repeated by depalletizing and palletizing back to the original cart. In this demo, tall stock carts highlight the advantage provided by the M-710i50-/50M’s curved arm. FANUC said its AI-driven iPC enables high-performance advanced picking in challenging lighting conditions to ensure seamless, reliable depalletizing.

FANUC to show new robotic controller

• Performance with FANUC’s new robot controller: Just announced, FANUC said its new R-50iA offers cybersecurity with a wide range of enhancements and has intelligent features designed to maximize robot performance. Attendees can learn about these and optimized efficiency demonstrated in a heavy payload palletizing cell that integrates the new controller.

Editor’s note: This article was syndicated from The Robot Report sibling site Engineering.com.

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