Pick and Pack – End Effector Gripper Development

Following findings and recommendations from the AMPC/MLA project “A.TEC.0108 Pick and Pack Materials Handling” a multi head vacuum gripper has been designed and fabricated. This vacuum head has been mounted on an ABB robot and along with the assembled partial product conveyor and vacuum system has been used in Pick and Pack trials conducted at MAR’s workshops.

The setup was used to pick Cryovaced primals of beef from a conveyor and place them in appropriate cartons. In particular this report focuses on:

• The setup of the conveyor, robot and primals used to test the vacuum gripper.
• The speed of the robot and how this affected the quality of the pick.
• The orientation required from the 6 axis robot to achieve the correct primal positioning in the carton.
• Any damage caused to the Cryovac bags and the methods used to overcome this.
• The cycle time of the pick and pack sequence, which will be required in further development of the pick and pack system.
• Imprints and deformation of the meat caused by the vacuum gripper.