Animal Feed - Hi speed bag Palletizing
Client
Webster Griffin supplied Liffey Mills, a major Irish supplier of animal feed and grain, with the first Okura robot and Okura palletising line in Ireland. Before making their selection, Liffey Mills carried out a technical evaluation of European robot integrators and palletizer manufacturers and visited several reference sites with Webster Griffin. https://liffeymills.ie/
Challenge
- Limited industrial space was available meaning a conventional bag palletising system would be too large
- Liffey Mills needed a palletiser capable of speeds of up to 1200 bags an hour – meaning a low cost ‘pick n place’ palletiser could not be considered as the changeover of a loaded pallet with the next pallet must be completed within 5 seconds
- Palletise onto a large 40’ X 50’ (1200 x 1500 mm) agricultural pallet – meaning an articulated robot with extensive reach was essential
- Handle multiple pallet sizes
Solution
Webster Griffin decided that a compact yet high-speed integrated robot palletiser system was the best solution. The Okura robot palletiser is highly intelligent and accurate and combined with the Okura control software ensures that ‘precision palletising’ is achieved.
Their bespoke solution incorporated the following:
- Okura 1600 bag palletising robot – with OXPA self-teach system
- Flexibility – OXPA windows based software allows operators to create new palletising patterns and optimise existing patterns in order to produce symmetrical palletised stacks.
- Self-optimising Okura Control Software – ensuring consistent speed and accuracy for ‘precision palletising’ resulting in neat, square palletised loads
- High Tech Okura bag hand ensures a consistent speed and accuracy for grasping and ‘precision placing’
- Bag infeed conveyors with flattener – squeezes bag flat for compact palletising
- Integrated Uniwrap 300 AE rotary arm pallet stretch wrapper guaranteeing waterproofing and stability during transport
- Self adjusting pallet wrapping technology – pallet height is automatically checked with the wrapping programme intelligently selected
- Motorised belt conveyors accommodating and delivering a bag to the palletising robot every 3 seconds
Result
Webster Griffin installed the turn-key palletising and stretch wrapping solution at their mill in Roscrae, Ireland
The following were distinct benefits.
- Liffey Mills are now palletising their 25kg bags of horse feed and cattle feed into palletised loads at high speeds of 1200 bags per hour
- Increased flexibility for palletising with the Okura intelligent system accommodating palletising pails, bins, boxes, cases or even cattle licking blocks
- Reduced maintenance due to system durability. Few moving parts and low maintenance design mean the robots are ideal for industrial environments
- Production doubled at the Liffey Mills line
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