CSi achieved a stunning success by designing, delivering and installing a high-quality palletising system at the innovatively designed premises of one of Holland’s largest co-packing companies situated in Etten-Leur.
This customer manufactures and co-packs a range of cleaning materials including detergents, bleaches, shampoos etc. in both liquid and powder form and also have the facilities to produce special one-off promotional ranges. This diverse product range requires a highly flexible production process, with the ability to handle a wide range of packaging formats and sizes. The original manufacturing site had many production lines, but all products were hand-palletised and the design of the original building made it difficult to automate the end-of-line processes.
The new cutting-edge designed building incorporates 23 production cells positioned around a central storage area, where products for each production cell are stored close to their point of use. Each production cell has an out-feed conveyor which transports finished products towards a centralised palletising system. The palletising system consists of 5 robot palletisers with each robot having 3 pick positions. This provides for the palletisation of 15 different products at any one time. A sixth robot is used as a means of de-stacking a wide variety of pallets which are then fed to the appropriate robot cell using a transfer car. This is an extremely advanced robot palletising system, being fully automated with very high capacities and the highest levels of reliability guaranteed. The control system has the ability to guide the transfer car towards the correct pallet pick up positions for the removal of full pallets and to replenish the empty pallet and layer sheet storage magazines.
The main challenge for CSi was the ever-changing range of products and the high degree of flexibility required across the entire system. With very short production runs and an ever-changing package format it was essential to design a robot gripper tool to suit both large and small packages, with the associated controls to ensure the careful and precise palletising of all the products.
CSi was chosen for this project due to its proven track-record in providing innovative and highly reliable materials handling solutions, and its ability to work in close cooperation with its customers to achieve all the goals set on any given project.
All aspects of the design of the new building and the equipment operating within it had to meet the highest levels of energy efficiency and overall sustainability. Features like LED lighting throughout the entire building, intelligent lighting controls which only switch on when needed, together with CSi’s own sophisticated controls which ensure conveyors only run when needed all go towards making this production unit one of the most efficient in Europe.
From its sleek exterior to its groundbreaking internal design this project demonstrates what can be achieved when suppliers and customers work together as one.
Production finally started after a successful installation and commissioning period in January 2010.
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