The robots are coming

We may be OnTheEdge of major growth spurt for robotics on North American packaging lines. That is what some, including Ben Miyares of PMMI, reported at a robotics conference held over the weekend leading up to Pack Expo in Las Vegas.

Robotics in packaging took a good three decades to develop. Industrial robots were introduced in the early 1960's and grew into wide use in Japan in the 70's. What the on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia refers to as "American industry's myopic vision" delayed use of robots here and allowed the Japanese to control the market. Eventually robotic applications were justified in packaging, and over the past 15 years, applications have moved from the end of packaging lines where big awkward robots stacked cartons onto pallets to the front of packaging lines where high speed agile robots place product into the infeed lugs of primary packaging machines. These applications have been widely applied in Europe and to a lesser degree here in North America.

According to Mr. Miyares' research, the 1980 listing of vendors at Pack Expo included no suppliers of robotic packaging equipment. In 1986 the Pack Expo directory included 18 robotic entries, growing to 29 over the subsequent 11 years. The 2007 directory for Pack Expo shows substantial growth to 243 robotic listings. This hockey stick growth curve may have real meaning to the industry. PMMI is in the midst of a study of robotics in packaging, and early indications include the prediction that the penetration of robotics in new packaging lines will double between now and 2012.

I think that this is great news for packagers! Robots can provide highly flexible automation options and mitigate capital risk on new lines that may be installed to support the launch of finicky new products. I'm not as confident that the news is as good for the robot manufacturers. While I would expect them to experience a portion of this growth, packaging machinery manufacturers have several options for bringing robotic functionality to end users.

As a subset of general purpose motion control, robotic functionality can be integrated into packaging machinery without the need of buying a stand-alone robot. Controls suppliers are ready to accommodate those who want to take on the task of building their own robot functionality. Most, if not all, of the major motion control suppliers have robot personalities ready to be dropped into their controllers. Third party partners have the mechanical gantries and arms at the ready, and as patents expire later this year, high speed picker components will also become available to the machinery builder.

As I see it, packaging machinery builders have at least four options for building robotic functionality into their machines.

One: They can purchase a complete packaged robot from a supplier like Fanuc, Kuka, or ABB and interface it to their packaging machine either on their own or with the help of an integrator.
Two: They can develop their own robot functionality (mechanical, electrical, and software) from scratch. This has already been done by a few well-known European packaging machinery manufacturers.
Three: They can purchase mechanical arms from a specialty supplier of such systems and purchase the remainder of the functionality from their favorite controls supplier. This would include purchase of servos, drives, a general purpose motion controller, canned robotic software and perhaps a vision system. These mechanical and controls components would be integrated along with other motion functionality on the machine for a complete solution.
Four: They can develop the mechanical arms specific to their particular machine's needs and purchase the control package as described in option three. This creates a fully integrated machine with robotic functions customized to the particular application.

Time will tell how these various options play out in reality. My guess is that options one and four will be the winners. What is your guess?

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Comments In reality, I see none of those options in the near future. Going to the robotic OEMs has always been an option for any and all packaging equipment. Since companies have been downsizing and eliminating their in-house engineering expertise, in-house abilities will be slim for robots for the present. Integrators and end user support companies will pick up the slack and offer effective and flexible robotic solutions since they know the end user better and have deep experiences and knowledge of packaging production requirements more then the robot builders ever will. Most robotic manufacturers would prefer to just sell robots and have competent integrators install and service them. Makes their life and support systems easier to maintain. The price of robots have dropped dramatically in the last ten years and will continue to drop, as it enters the commodity category. It is how, when and where you use the technology that will get the best return. I have been trying to use robotics for years in all aspects of packaging but have not been able to get many systems in due to still present speed constraints, safety and guarding issues that eat up real estate and moving plants from mechanical based trained maintenance personnel to electronic, software and electrical personnel and training. As robotics becomes simplier and more modular in and for applications, this should ease the people issues. Posted by: Paul Zepf on October 29, 2007 I read your blog in the October edition of PW. I take great interest in the intellectual capital available in the marketplace. Our company acquires surplus and used packaging equipment primarily throughout North America. Many of our most successful representatives are retired from packaging and consumer goods corporation. Some of these folks choose to be very active and some choose to semi-retire while still completing transactions on a less frequent basis. In any event, they know their stuff and have relationships in place that add value for us and their customers. Their vast experience is extremely attractive to us. I only wish that there was a better way to meet some of these folks. Posted by: Jack Crowley on October 31, 2007 Post a comment (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) Name: Email Address: URL: Remember personal info? Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)