April 2020

40 n FOOD AND BEVERAGE April 2020 www.drivesncontrols.com Robotic machine has sprout-packing in the bag D rysdales, a vegetable processor located in the Scottish Borders, has developed from its origins as a farm-based enterprise to a nationwide processor of vegetables. It processes 50,000 tonnes of fresh vegetables – mainly swedes, Brussel sprouts and leeks – a year for British supermarkets. It supplies sprouts all year from 900 acres of farmland – more than any other company in Europe – as well as being the largest peeler and the first to operate a semi-automated peeling line. Early last year Drysdales embarked on a project to install a fully automated sprout- packing line. The line would comprise a vertical bagging machine, a metal detector, a checkweigher and a crate packing system, all located on a mezzanine floor. This was the first time Drysdales had automated crate packing on its sprout processing lines, a decision driven largely by concerns about future labour supply. “On all of our lines we were relying on manual labour to pack bags of sprouts into crates,”explains says the company’s farming and facilities director, Ian McLachlan. “However, with Brexit, we foresaw a potential labour issue. The time was right to invest in a machine that could perform this task. One of the challenges of automating this operation was the number of possible pack and crate configurations. Sprouts are packed in bag sizes from 200g to 500g, and each retailer has its own crate format requirements. “We needed the flexibility to accommodate different pack sizes and crate lengths, whole and half crates, landscape and portrait layouts, and different volumes – from ten packs up to 25 packs to a crate,”says McLachlan. Drysdales invited several robotics suppliers to make proposals, including Brillopak, a Kent- basedmanufacturer of flexible robotic packing and palletising systems. It suggested using a robotic pick-and-place cell originally designed to pack bags of potatoes and apples into crates. The UniPaker cell is designed to boost productivity and improve pack presentation on supermarket shelves. Using a delta robot, it loads up to 75 tray-sealed or flow-wrapped packs per minute and is ideal for packs of vegetables, fruits and salad weighing up to 1kg. “We had never tried using the UniPaker to handle sprouts before, but we knew that we could do the job,”says Brillopak director, David Jahn.“The challenges were the same as with potatoes – how do you pick and place flexible bags containing small, moving spherical products at speed with accuracy?” To address these challenges, the machine uses purpose-designed suction end-effector, combined with a vision technology that recognises and orientates the packs. Conventional suction heads can accommodate the irregular contours of flow wraps and pillow packs and adjust swiftly to different pack sizes. But if the vacuum is compromised, there is the risk of bags sagging and dropping onto the conveyor, causing line stoppages. Brillopak manufactures its own heads using cups with independent vacuum generators, thus providing greater control during handling. “When you are looking to replace labour at the end of a line with robotics, consistency is king, as you have to assume there won’t be anyone there to intervene if the robot stops,” Jahn explains.“Our business is built on designing automation solutions that operate at high speed but with consistency. The key to achieving this is precision control over the product throughout.” Drysdales gave Brillopak the go-ahead, and the new cell has been running successfully for more than eight months at its site in Cockburnspath, Berwickshire. The system is currently programmed to run 30 different patterns without any tool changeovers. Only one person is needed to take away full crates, replace empty crates and do quality checks. “No-one else is using a machine like this to pack sprouts into crates,”says McLachlan.“This investment fits with our business philosophy of harnessing innovation in farming and production methods in order to stay at the top of our game and deliver the best quality produce and service to our customers.” n A Scottish vegetable producer has become the first UK company to automate the loading of packs of Brussel sprouts into crates. It has installed a robotic cell that can load more than 75 packs per minute with minimal manual intervention, protecting the business against potential labour shortages. The robotic sprout-packing cell can handle 75 packs per minute with minimal manual intervention. It is programmed to run 30 different patterns without needing any tool changeovers