Feb 25 2011
According to Michael Senske, president of Pearson Packaging Systems, customers have been demanding for a robotic case packer, where the robotic arm functions independently of a proprietary controller.
Pearson has overcome this shortcoming by collaborating with two other companies, robot builder, Kuka and automation supplier, Rockwell.
Pearson's Proprietary Controller
Before the introduction of this innovative control technology, Pearson used to integrate a robot purchased from an external vendor in its applications. As a result, the robot designed by Pearson was equipped with its own proprietary controller. Senske stated that the robot’s traditional controller was almost the size of a small refrigerator and also highlighted the fact that in the earlier versions, the control system of the RTL-MX was different from the actual design itself and controlled using the Rockwell platform. Senske also added that, the robotic case packer had to be programmed and maintained individually and to tackle this inconvenience; the experts at Pearson transformed the proprietary language into a familiar one with the installation of a Rockwell PLC and HMI.
Senske declared that Pearson has worked over the past year and a half to integrate the Rockwell Logix Platform for controlling the Kuka robot. He mentioned that the new robot case packer utilizes the same programming language and interface, as the rest of the machine and eliminates the need for a separate controller for operating its packaging system.
Issues such as space constraints and knowledge of a proprietary robot code have been resolved with the introduction of the new control system. The RTL-MX (Robotic Top Loader-Multi Access) products by Pearson are used for a wide variety of top loading applications. Pearson manufactures several designs of robotic end-of-arm tooling to suit each product.