Palletizing in the Spanish food industry

Citation

(1999), "Palletizing in the Spanish food industry", Industrial Robot, Vol. 26 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.1999.04926daf.006

Palletizing in the Spanish food industry

Palletizing in the Spanish food industry

Keywords Food, Palletising, Robots

A leader in the Spanish food market, GALLINA BLANCA, is located near Barcelona. With over 400 employees working in a 42,000m² plant, GALLINA BLANCA manufactures more than 350 products representing 26 different lines.

Equipped with the very latest generation of machines, GALLINA BLANCA owns a market share of 61 percent in packaged soaps, 47 percent in cube broth, 59 percent of precooked food. The integration of five RX170 L robots, working three shifts, automated the palletizing operations at the end of two production lines. The first one, including two RX170 L and their respective grippers, is characterized by the palletizing of ten different formats with a cycle time of 30 boxes/minute. On the second line, three RX170 L robots with a different type of gripper palletize 60 formats at 27 boxes/minute. The weight of the boxes ranges from 1-15kg (see Plate 5).

Plate 5 The integration of five RX170 robots, working three shifts, automated the palletizing operations at the end of two production lines.

The products arrive in front of the robots and are automatically identified. There are six storage areas for the first line and nine storage areas for the second line; the supply of empty pallets and the evacuation of full pallets are performed automatically. A supervision system allows the multiple-possibility processing of production management, classification, identification and labeling of empty pallets, manufacturing statistics, etc.

At the end of the palletizing process, the products are stored in a warehouse. Before the introduction of the robots, palletizing operations were carried out manually.

The robots have offered several advantages, such as:

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  easy adaptation to necessary production increases;

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  improved working conditions;

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  better quality of the final palletized product.