Fatronik claims the design for its Quickplacer robot can help personal care makers increase productivity by up to 20 per cent compared to currently existing packaging and processing techniques for small-sized objects.
The personal care industry is demanding greater automation in its processes, attempting to cut labour costs and improve output as a means of bringing down costs.
The automation of manual processes significantly reduces associated errors and removes duplication of activities, ultimately increasing productivity and profitability.
The Quickplacer is designed for small-sized objects - up to two kilograms - in very varied packaging and placing tasks in products ranging from lipsticks to shampoo bottles, the company stated.
The technological structure and capacities of this robot allows it to handle a variety of tasks in a variety of manufacturing sectors, which as well as the personal care sector, also includes food and agriculture, hygiene, health, and electronic components.
It can accelerate to 15G of force, enabling it to pick up and position over 200 items per minute.
"The Quickplacer robot is the most rapid in the world. Its high acceleration and braking capacity, five times more than that of a Formula 1 racing car, makes it world leader in production capacity," Fatronik stated.
The handling robot consists of four actuators or arms working in a co-ordinated manner. The robot has four degrees of freedom, displacements along three translations and rotates on its vertical axis. It is a cylinder with a diameter of 1200mm and a height of 250mm.
Its rotational capacity covers 200 degrees, which enables positioning an object in any orientation-position.
The robot is equipped with a vision system capable of guiding its movements. The vision system, available in both black and white and in colour, is responsible for locating the shape and the orientation-position of the objects.
Processors can also co-ordinate the whole system with moving belts. This allows the robot to pick up a moving object and position it on a moving belt.
Fatronik says the robot can be used for positioning small products, such as cosmetics in individually-shaped slots or for packaging items such as lipsticks either individually or in groups.
Fatronik unveiled the robot at Bilbao's International Machine-Tool Biennial, which ended on 11 March.