Pet Food - Palletising system
Client
Established in 1912 H G Gladwell & Sons, (now Copdock Mill) is a pet food manufacturer, wholesaler and distributor. The family-run business specialises in premium quality feed for poultry, wild & caged birds and domestic pets. The company also supplies its own specialist fishing bait and has diversified to food and clothing products for the equine industry. https://www.copdockmill.co.uk/
Challenge
The customer wanted a palletiser integrated with their existing bagging and conveying system to prepare their 15kg to 25kg bagged products for transport. bags were to be packed to specific palletising patterns with scope for further patterns to be programmed in the future. A throughput of 300 bags per hour was specified.
Solution
Webster Griffin recommended a total palletising solution to meet Copdock Mill requirements, system components and options included.
- Inline bag turner to prepare bags for accurate a palletising
- 5m inclined belt in feed conveyor, transporting the bags to the robot inlet conveyor
- Okura A400 Palletising robot with OXPA’s “easy-teach” palletising programme software
- Okura bag hand for precise collection and placement of each bag
- Advanced touch screen HMI control system for complete control over all aspects of the system
- Guarding system
Result
The turn-key system was installed and commissioned by Webster Griffin. Operational benefits to Copdock Mill included:
- High speed palletising by the specialist Okura robot achieving the desired throughput of 300 bags an hour
- Autonomy meaning less physical labour for workers and freeing workers to focus on other factory tasks
- Flexibility – the advanced Okura OXPA palletising software allows palletising patterns to be changed with ease and new unique patterns to be created.
- Robot accuracy means each pallet is neat, compact and ready for distribution.
- The Okura robot has now palletised over 1 million bags for Copdock Mill.