Today's customers want food that tastes good, is healthy, sustainable and of good quality. In addition, they should cost as little as possible. This combination of requirements poses major challenges for companies in the food industry.
Many companies have to make major changes to their production processes in order to meet these requirements and offer food at a lower price.
Cobots, collaborative robots, are essential for this step. They are an important component of Industry 4.0 and help companies to automate production.
The advantages for the food industry resulting from efficient production are lower costs, greater attractiveness for employees and improved competitiveness overall.
Achieving higher quality with cobots
Production conditions in the food industry are often very challenging. The ambient temperatures can be very high, but also very low. These conditions pose a significant health risk for employees. For cobots, however, places with these conditions are the ideal area of application.
Another important aspect is the hygienic requirements in the food industry. The cobots from Universal Robots have cleanroom approval and are therefore ideally suited for use under the highest hygiene requirements.
The flexible use of collaborative robots results in an increase in output while at the same time reducing the workload on employees. The new robot colleague is happy to take on repetitive and ergonomically unfavorable tasks.
Cobots work hand in hand with your employees
There are many possible applications for cobots in the food industry. One important example is palletizing. As the food industry is responding to the increasing number of single-person households with smaller packaging sizes, more pallets are now required. What's more, this has to be done quickly and precisely. Cobots are particularly suitable for packaging and palletizing. They usually work alongside your employees without protective fences or enclosures. In the event of a collision with an employee, the robot switches off immediately.
How do food manufacturers use cobots?
Atria Scandinavia is one of Northern Europe's leading manufacturers of convenience products for vegetarians and gourmets. The manufacturer supplies retailers and wholesalers around the clock.
In production, they rely on two UR5 robots and one UR10 robot. This enables them to keep downtimes to a minimum.
The cobots from Universal Robots help with the packaging, palletizing and labelling of the various specialities. Overall, the use of the cobots with their extremely high repeat accuracy results in 25% less material waste in the packaging department. In addition, the entire production process is optimized.
Technical Manager Johnny Jansson is delighted with the uncomplicated use of the cobots: "Previously, it took six hours to switch to a different product. With the UR robots, we can switch within 20 minutes."
But Atria Scandinavia is not the only company to have had this positive experience. COVAP also uses a UR10 Cobot in its plant for original Iberian ham products. The cobot places plastic trays on the packaging line. This has sped up the entire packaging process without compromising product quality. In addition, working conditions improved and the investment paid for itself within just 16 months.
Cascina Italia also uses cobots in production. There, cobots prepare transport boxes for large orders. This relieves the staff of a strenuous task. At the end of the 24 production lines is a UR5 cobot, which places 1.5 million eggs in egg cartons every day.
The key to greater flexibility, adaptability and versatility is certainly automation with collaborative robots.
The cobots from Universal Robots can be quickly integrated into various production lines. If you want to increase your productivity and competitiveness, find out more about cobots here. You are welcome to arrange a cobot demo so that you can see for yourself.