Case Study

Case Study: Vision-Guided Box Packing
Application: Picking & packing
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Today’s labor market is changing; Deloitte projects as manyas 2.4 million manufacturing jobs will go unfilled by 2028.1
As human workers become increasingly difficult to find,automation gives manufacturers the power and flexibility
they need to grow their business without depending onscarce human labor.
To avoid this issue, the customer reached out to Midwest
Engineered Systems (MWES), a Kawasaki Robotics Preferred
Integrator based in Waukesha, WI, to automate the box
packing process for their packaged food product. MWES
listened to the customer, and designed a custom box
packing cell that utilized Kawasaki’s high performancerobots and software to surpass initial objectives.

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Two compact, high-speed Kawasaki RS007 robots pick product off the bagconveyor, and place them in boxes on a secondary conveyor below.

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SOLUTION
The customer came to MWES Engineered Systems seeking
an automated solution that would allow them to rely less onhuman labor, which had proved to be scarce and unreliable.
This growing manufacturer also needed a system thatfacilitated growth through form and function: the designneeded to be mobile, compact, and able to handle a varietyof different product and box sizes.

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box sizes and product types
The customer’s existing bagging machine places bags onto a
conveyor that feeds into the cell. Once the product is
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passes this data on to the first robot along with the conveyor
tracking data, which is used to determine the position andseries of pick points for each bag.
Simultaneously, boxes are loaded onto a secondary conveyor
underneath the robots, which runs alongside the bagconveyor. Once a bag has been picked, the robot drops it into
the box below. The second robot picks the remaining bags left
on the conveyor, finishing out each box.

Kawasaki’s K-ROSET simulation software was used to design the cell.

Case Study

Flexibility AchievedWhen operators need to add a new product, they simply
type the bag dimensions, weight and box size into the HMI,
and assign a new product number. MWES installed a handcrank that adjusts the box conveyor’s place in the cell,allowing for different sized boxes and giving the customer
the flexibility they were looking for. When the operator
needs to pack a different product, they just update theproduct number on the HMI and turn the hand crank to thecorrect count.
To add to the cell’s flexibility, its compact size makes it
possible for a forklift to pick it up and move it anywhere in
the customer’s facility. The cell only needs power, air andEtherNet connection, so the customer can get started in as
little as one day. This is key for a growing manufacturer,says Steve Phelps, MWES Sales Engineer. “This is typical fora packaging environment… and with a customer that’s justgetting used to automation and is in a growth phase, they
may need to move things around their facility periodically.”

A side-by-side view of the K-ROSET cell simulation and the robots in production.

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new roles within the facilityë6\VWHPäVFRPSDFWDQGYHUVDWLOHGHVLJQJLYHVFXVWRPHU
the flexibility they need
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to 80 bags per minute without drops, which exceeds theWKURXJKSXWDQGHTXLSPHQWHIIHFWLYHQHVVJRDOVVHWE\WKH
customer. 2 The system has also allowed the customer toUHGHSOR\ZRUNHUVHDFKVKLIWWRKLJKHUOHYHOUROHVEHWWHU
suited for their skills. 2The Kawasaki RS007 robots are equipped with proprietary vacuum grippers
designed specifically for picking bagged product.

According to the integrator, this system is conducive tofurther automation. A downstream palletizing system could
prepare the boxes for distribution, or box erectors could beinstalled upstream for increased efficiency. 2The Right Robot
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options made them ideal for this compact cell, in addition
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designed to house vision cables, sensor harnesses, air lines
and other components inside the arm structure, preventing
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operation in tight installation spaces.

Kawasaki Robotics (USA), Inc.
Corporate Headquarters for Americas
28140 Lakeview Drive, Wixom, MI 48393, U.S.A.
Phone: +1-248-446-4100 Fax: +1-248-446-4200

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