Packaging Prepared Meals in Stainless-Steel Totes

Company

JYGA responded to a customer’s request for a solution to automate the handling of stainless-steel food containers.

To address health and environmental challenges, the company replaced its plastic containers with more durable stainless-steel containers. This change had a significant impact on operator ergonomics and productivity, requiring the entire production-line process to be reconsidered.

JYGA therefore proposed an automated line for stainless-steel containers.

Project & solution

To meet this requirement, JYGA designed a fully automated stainless-steel container packaging line. The line includes the following functions: 

• Destacking and placing stainless-steel containers

A collaborative robot picks a stainless-steel container from a trolley using a vacuum gripper, turns it over and places it on the conveyor.

• Container conveying

Once placed on the conveyor, the stainless-steel food container is filled, weighed, fitted with a lid, locked and then labelled.  

• Destacking and placing lids

The cobot picks a lid from a stack in a trolley using a vacuum-cup gripper. The collaborative robot places the lid on the container. The lid is then mechanically re-centred on the container.

• Labelling

A labeller applies a label to the top of the containers. The labeller is fitted with an automatic detection system.

• Case loading and stacking/destacking

The collaborative robot picks an empty case and positions it either on a wheeled base at the start of a stack or on top of a full case. The cobot picks 2 stainless-steel containers and places them into the empty case.