When paper manufacturer Australian Paper needed to speed up its automated Boxed paper palletising system, Robotic Automation (Australia) stepped in to help. They chose Norgren’s Fieldbus II pneumatic valve systems and rodless cylinders, and developed a production line that is now substantially quicker than ever before. Robotic Automation’s challenge was to replace Australian Paper’s struggling system (which was unable to meet the rising demands of a single production line) with a fully automated system that could handle two high-speed production lines. To ensure the pneumatics side ran as smoothly and reliably as possible, Robotic Automation called in Norgren to advise. The solution consists of three Motman UP130 handling robots and includes conveyors for the boxed paper on two lines, pick-off stations, pallet conveying, pallet shuttles, motor control and system control. Unique to the system are the specially designed sliding fork and twin grippers forming the end effectors on the palletising robots. These innovative grippers allow the picking of boxes to be doubled up, yet has the ability to place each one independently when required. Not only does this allow fast throughput but increases flexibility and handles fast palletising of odd pattern stacks.
A key part of the system are Norgren’s LINTRA rodless cylinders, which have the
benefit of actuation within the overall length of the cylinder, and can also have the carriage anchored to allow actuation of the cylinder body. This provides a particularly neat solution to many applications where compact containment is desired. Full advantage of this was taken by Robotic Automation when specifying rodless cylinders as forks and again in the use of a pair
of large LINTRA cylinders to transport fully loaded pallets to the out-feed conveyors.
