The Business
Arnold Packaging is a leading supplier of packaging supplies, custom containers, and packaging automation technologies. On a daily basis, the company produces many different types of boxes, crates, and pallets in different quantities. Whether filling an order for a few dozen or a few thousand, Arnold Packaging has a decades-long reputation for delivering only the highest quality products to their customers.
TASK
Tending a Magellan Boxmaker machine
Play VideoThe Challenge
Just physically setting up industrial robots traditionally is a complex and time-consuming process. Worse, programming a robot for a production run could then take days. Arnold needed a solution with the flexibility to keep up with ever-changing demands in a fast-paced, high-mix low-volume environment.
The Solution
The Forge/Station, coupled with third-party industrial automation equipment from industry leaders like Universal Robots, Schunk, Robotiq, Piab, and others. Able to be set up in minutes and programmed in a few hours, the Forge/Station allows Arnold Packaging to leverage the power of robotic automation without the traditional downsides including: lengthy deployment times, complex changeover, and downtime related to lack of in-house programming/troubleshooting resources.
The Results
Arnold initially programmed their Forge/Station to tend a Magellan Boxmaker from RJE Machinery. The Forge/Station feeds in cardboard stock from a stack, freeing up a human for more valuable jobs. Tasks are saved in Forge/OS, so when the same job rolls around again, no time is wasted reprogramming the robot. Instead, using READY’s mechanical alignment system, a worker at Arnold just rolls the Forge/Station up to the Magellan Boxmaker and goes through the simple alignment process. Five minutes later, the Forge/Station is producing boxes for one of Arnold’s many customers. Given the mobility and flexibility of the Forge/Station, this is only the beginning of robotic automation at Arnold Packaging.
Arnold Packaging.The Forge/Station frees our operator from non-value added feeding and allows him to perform quality checks while preparing the next run. I am impressed and the applications I have in mind are vast. There are huge opportunities to eliminate all kinds of manual processes.