September 2020

n FOOD AND BEVERAGE Delta robots give a lift to pastry production S foglia Torino is an Italian pastry manufacturer that is well-known for its vol-au-vent cases, which it produces by the million. When it identified a need to increase its throughput, it decided to turn to robots to help speed up the transfer of three different sizes of vol-au- vents (38mm, 50mm and 60mm) from a conveyor into thermoformed blister packs. One of the first problems that the local system integrator Tiesse encountered was the delicate nature of the product – “vol-au- vent” translates as “wind blown”. An early challenge was how to pick up such a fragile product – and one which has so many variations in shape and size – from above, especially with such high volumes passing through at high speed. As the vol-au-vent cases leave their ovens, they are transported on a wire mesh conveyor into a cooling chamber, before going on to be packaged for dispatch. To assure accurate product positioning in preparation for the robotic lifting and packaging stages to follow, the Tiesse team first needed a process for recognising and aligning the pastries from the point at which they entered the ovens. With this addressed successfully, their focus turned to the design of the packaging operation as the products emerged from the other end of the baking and cooling line. The packaging station downstream of the cooling section is essentially a cabin housing the conveyor and four Kawasaki YF-03N delta robots, each equipped with vacuum gripping devices that lift the individual vol- au-vent cases, three at a time, precisely and speedily. A machine vision system provided by TS Vision monitors the positioning of the vol au vents to allow them to be picked up and placed into the blister packs. The system has delivers exactly what Sfoglia asked for – a substantial speeding up of its production processes, resulting in increased throughput. n Four delta robots are now being used to transfer the vol au vents from Sfoglia Torino’s production line into blister packs waiting alongside Special grippers were needed to pick up the delicate pastries that can in a variety of shapes and sizes ŽƌŝǀŶ O io solut • Re i l ŽĨ ϮϲZ l h i f tle o 12 Bit Sing n up t urn + i l ͬ Zϲϯ ŶŵĞŶƚƐ ƌ D 16 Bit Multiturn hi h i i ŶĐŽĚĞƌ ĨŽƌ , ĂdžŝŵƵŵ ZĞůŝĂď ĂƌƐŚ ŝůŝƚLJ Ɖŵŝ͘ǁǁ p • t ona • Tempera • 300N ax • 200g sh • Protecti • Interface ǁ ŬƵ ͘ŽĐ͘ŶŽƟĂŵŽƚƵĂĞƐůƵ Analo a ibr 0g v o +100 0°C t o ous ng eets sta n ess r ture range -4 ial / radial load ock resistance / 2 on class up to IP69K s: SSI, CANopen and ϲϯϰϲϮϭͿϬ;ϰϰн͗ůĞƚ | gue ion r t °C g corros on res stance esistance ƐŝŐĞƌϭϬϬϵK^/ | ϰϵϭϰ h< K LJŶĂƉŵŽĐĚĞƌĞƚ ĸĐŝĂů ŝƐƚƌŝďƵƚŽƌ ŽĨ ,ĞŶŐƐƚůĞƌ An Italian pastry manufacturer has turned to robots to help it move delicate vol au vent cases from the production line to their packaging.