Live performance of robotic depalletizing of aerosol cans

At FACHPACK, the TRAPO team will be presenting live an exclusive special solution for the safe depalletizing of aerosol cans under the motto “Rethinking Packaging Processes” from September 27 to 29 at the Nuremberg Exhibition Center, Hall 4 | Booth 4-129. A particular challenge in this project is the high risk of the cans tipping over during handling. The solution: a customized, highly efficient multifunction gripper.

Picking, box packing, conveying, (de)palletizing, load securing, shuttle transport, warehouse logistics and autonomous truck loading: As a complete line provider, the TRAPO portfolio offers safe, forward-looking solutions for the individual needs of the packaging industry.

Short decision-making processes and high quality characterize the TRAPO profile: ONE SYSTEM I ONE CONTROL – hardware and software for machines, systems and service come from a single source and are manufactured 100% in-house. The customer always has a fixed contact person, but benefits from the knowledge of different specialist teams.

Individual gripper solutions for your product

Grippers are increasingly being developed for the sometimes simultaneous handling of several products and also take on tasks from their periphery. They grip workpieces of different sizes and geometries and are used in fully automated robotic applications as well as in collaborative assistance robots.

Developed in the TRAPO technical center, they are tested in the neighboring assembly hall. Efficient combination grippers combine the tasks of several: the time-consuming and costly changing of grippers is no longer necessary.

Depalletizing 330 aerosol cans/minute

Shaving foam, hair spray or deodorant: aerosol cans can be found in every household. TRAPO will be presenting the core of a current high-performance depalletizing station for the cosmetics industry live at FACHPACK. Aerosol cans from 35 to 250 ml capacity are flexibly depalletized from trays with different dimensions. The output of up to 330 aerosol cans with a diameter of 53 millimeters per minute is impressive; much higher outputs can be achieved with smaller diameters. The challenge is the low stability of the slim, lightweight cans – with a high risk of tipping during gripping, transporting and separating. The automated line has already been ordered five times by the customer.

One multifunction gripper – several functions

TRAPO’s extensive gripper expertise is evident in the trade fair system.

The robot depalletizing system was equipped with a complex multifunction gripper that covers the following functions:

• Sensor-monitored measuring travel of the multifunction gripper over the tray.
• Surface suction cups – ensure suction of the cans during removal from the full pallet and safe placement on the running modular belt.
• Lateral tactile vacuum suction cups for safe entrainment and separate delivery of the intermediate layers / carton trays.
• Front-side device equipped with suction cups for handling at the separating device and compressing the layer pad stack.

Always in view: sustainable recycling concepts

It is TRAPO’s high standard to combine efficiency and sustainability with personal and product safety. This also applies to the depalletizing solution for aerosol cans.

The trays have different side heights. The cans on the gripper together with the intermediate layer are separated on the tilting table. After the can layer has been transferred to the conveyor belt for separation, the gripper and tilting table work together with the cutting device to cut open the tray corners. In this way, they can be deposited by the gripper on a separate pallet in a space-saving manner and later sent for recycling.

The empty Euro pallets are transported further and stacked in a magazine for reuse.

Conventional or tailor-made? Palletizing competence

In addition to conventional solutions with gantry and jointed-arm robots, we will be providing information at FACHPACK about our flagship, the HLP 6000 high-speed layer palletizer, which can be tailor-made to fit into its environment.

Its unique selling point is its flexibility: the HLP 6000 deposits perfectly and realizes any layer patterns of different formats – with up to ten layers per minute.

The basic modules of the HLP 6000 are the lifting column, the layer gripper and the infeed section. When equipped with an additive y-axis, the HLP serves two palletizing stations and can operate with both high and low infeeds. Alternatively available as a variant with rotary module or traversing axis or a combination of both: Then the high-capacity layer palletizer moves along a given length, with the rotary variant acting in a radius of 180°. This variant can serve several palletizing stations.

The perfect combination: power, stamina and brain – palletizer, robot gripper plus TRAPO Pack software. With the help of the software, any layer patterns are generated in perfection and stored for follow-up orders. This saves enormous makeready times – and thus costs!

Info about innovative customer solutions in the TRAPO Lounge

Complete line concepts for new and existing plants are part of TRAPO GmbH’s self-image. Picking, box packing, conveying, (de)palletizing, securing loads, shuttle transport, warehouse logistics and autonomous truck loading – customers benefit from safe, forward-looking solutions for the individual needs of the packaging industry.

ONE SYSTEM I ONE CONTROL: Hardware and software from a single source. Customers have a fixed contact person at TRAPO who is responsible for the overall system project from conception to production to commissioning and who also provides after-sales service – for the life of the machine.

At FACHPACK, the TRAPO team at Booth 4-129 will answer all detailed questions about the entire portfolio. In order to provide the trade audience with far-reaching answers, “TRAPO Hubs” will be equipped with monitors in order to explain outstanding features in personal discussions, both with the help of film sequences from practical experience and with the aid of animations.