Combination RSC Case/Tray Erector

The customer had to run a large case at 75 cases per minute and didn’t want to risk employee injury when people were filling the case magazine. AFA devised a solution to automatically pick case blanks from a pallet and place them in a magazine in the correct orientation. AFA utilized two AFA Systems’ Delta 3 robots with vision cameras to pick and accurately load the magazine. The case packer was designed with a heavy-duty rotary feeder to pick and erect cases on the main case conveyor. A barrel cam loading system automatically loaded the industrial wipe rolls into the case.

1,200 Bottle Per Minute Tray Packer

To meet customer requirements, AFA Systems designed a new machine assembly: a heavy-duty, intermittent-motion autoload tray packer for bottling or vial lines. Built on a monobloc frame, the machine completes all operations within 30 square feet—about half the space typically required for a conventional multi-machine solution. The machine runs 1200 bottles per minute.

The complex system includes six AFA Systems robots. After filling, capping, and labeling, the bottles are laid on their sides and entered the machine through two infeeds. The bottles are transported to two gantry robots via a pocket conveyor. The gantry robots pick ten bottles each – 20 bottles total each cycle – from the pocket conveyor. The robots place the bottles into a plastic tray containing 50 bottles. Once the tray is filled, a third gantry robot pushes the tray into a carton, which another gantry robot has erected. The carton advances to the straw packing stations.

Simultaneously, a singulator conveyor stages drinking straw packets single-file for two AFA Delta robots. The robots pick the straw packets and place them on a staging plate, rotating on edge and end-loading them into the carton between the rows of bottles. The trays are then sealed and discharged downstream for further processing.