Interpack 2021: Schubert’s cobots to star alongside 3D printing and virtual warehousing technologies
02 Apr 2020 --- Machine manufacturer Schubert has restrategized the debut of its latest digital technologies to the packaging industry in light of the cancellation of the international trade show interpack. Schubert’s cobots – short for cooperative robots – alongside its novel TLM machine concepts and 3D printing innovations, are set to star at the postponed interpack event, now scheduled to take place February 25 to March 3 in Düsseldorf, Germany, next year.
The key demand drivers for machine digitalization and robot functions are “straightforward: flexibility and simplicity,” Volker Haaf, Strategy & Marketing/Cooperative Robotics at Schubert, tells PackagingInsights.
“With robots and especially with cobots, it is possible to react quickly to changing market situations. Cobots allow you to automate manual processes, notably in brownfield projects. They can also be quickly reconfigured for other activities if required. This calls for digital systems that reduce complexity, for example, through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI),” he elaborates.
Schubert is developing a comprehensive system for its new cobot modules to automate and optimize small batch-size packaging processes. Applied without safety cages, the cobots require little space and relieve operators of monotonous tasks in packaging processes, such as picking up and placing jumbled products onto conveyor belts.
Schubert's new T4 pick & place robots are based on the Delta robot type and offer high performance in small spaces.The new cobots include an intelligent and easy-to-configure control system and a vision system that allows the cobots to perceive their environment, feed belts, format parts and much more with the help of AI.
The simplicity of vision programming comes at the price of developing entirely new technologies to accommodate it and employing the specialists who implement these technologies for the cobot manufacturers, Haaf explains.
To do so, Schubert relies exclusively on its own developments. “Our cobot controller, for example, which we developed together with Schubert System Elektronik, is one of the first industrial controllers with AI-optimized hardware. This makes it possible to obtain results of the neural networks quickly and to process them further,” Haaf details.
The first steps for cobots
Haaf forecasts cobots’ market success to be evident in areas where it is “not yet worthwhile” to build specific systems as the cobots adapt to existing processes, rather than automating complex linkages. “Just like humans, they can quickly change production tasks. One example is adding a Christmas greeting to a product during the weeks before Christmas. The potential is quite significant because the cobot is interesting for processes and customers for whom automation has not been worthwhile up until now,” he further explains.
Dubbed “tog.519,” Schubert's first cobot will offer unprecedented possibilities within the cosmetics, confectionery, pharmaceutical and food industries. In the latter case, tog.519 can seasonally compile baking mixes for operation at customer sites. Schubert has “an entire family of cobots” in the pipeline for the upcoming years. The packaging giant aims to first optimize its cobots for pick and place tasks without classical programming, considering there are “currently no comparable systems on the market for this purpose,” Haaf notes.
Pick and place robots
The cooperative bots arrive as the latest addition to Schubert’s pick and place robots. Complementing the seasoned F4 robot used in numerous Schubert picker lines are the company’s new specialized T4 and T5 robots.
The design of these pick and place robots is based on the well-known delta robot type, whose compact rectangular working area makes them perfect for high performance in the smallest of spaces. Notably, up to six of the new four-axis T4 robots can work simultaneously in a single TLM frame. On the other hand, the T5 offers a fifth axis that can pivot and tilt products, processing both plastic and cardboard trays.
Schubert now integrates its GS.Gate industrial gateway as standard in every new TLM system.The fast-paced packaging industry demands instant data collection and analysis, now made possible with Schubert’s new GS Gate integrated as an industrial gateway in every TLM system.
The GS Gate evaluates system productivity and provides “100 percent protection” from harmful malware from the internet, which ultimately leads to improved added value to overall equipment effectiveness. The results can be viewed either on the GRIPS.world customer platform or on the machine operating terminal.
Virtual warehousing and 3D printing
With this data security and optimization at hand, Schubert is taking the next steps into virtual warehousing and 3D printing. With the new part-streaming platform from its subsidiary Schubert Additive Solutions, Schubert is now in possession of a “fast, reliable and economical” virtual warehouse that represents a major step towards secure, flexible production.”
The digitally stored parts are available everywhere, eliminating long waiting and delivery times, Schubert indicates. In addition to simple spare and wear parts, a wide variety of 3D format parts for robot tools can be printed via the part streaming platform.
By Anni Schleicher
