Augsburg/Duesseldorf, April 2005 – At “Interpack” (Hall 6, Booth D/70), KUKA Roboter GmbH, the leading supplier of industrial robots, is presenting KUKA.MixPac – a new function package for sorting mixed displays. This standard function package includes all the robot functions and controllers required for order collation. Thanks to its open system environment, it can be integrated into downstream logistics areas.
 
This new functionality is KUKA Roboter’s response to increasing calls for greater automation in collation tasks. This automation solution from the market leader in robotic applications offers companies in manufacturing industry significant economical advantages. This is because the collation of different goods to a customer-specific consignment ready for shipment is a complex logistical procedure that requires highly flexible handling due to constantly changing customer requirements. For this reason, order collation is often still carried out manually.
 
A good example of this is the presentation of products on displays in supermarkets. The objective in this case is to offer a high density of different products in a given area as it is the sales per unit area that determine profitability. How these products are presented depends on purchaser behavior and is subject to seasonal variation.

KUKA Roboter has designed its new automation functionality in KUKA.MixPac in such a way that the operator can very quickly and easily launch into new customer orders. The goods are presented to the robot by a conveyor from a magazine. Just like in a game of Tetris, the robot, equipped with intelligent grippers, then picks the products up, aligns them at lightning speed and in mid-air into the correct position and sets them down on the display in the layout desired by the customer.

KUKA Roboter GmbH is demonstrating this application at “Interpack” with jars of jam. The idea here is to give visitors a first impression of the potential uses of robots in the packaging and foodstuffs industry. From tubes of toothpaste to frozen pizzas and cans of fish, the orange robots sort everything you will find in a supermarket. Short setup times and low costs make it possible to process complex and varied customer orders at very short notice. The possibilities are far from exhausted, however. Equally conceivable, for example, are applications with multiple robots working effortlessly hand in hand. KUKA.MixPac thus supports customers where they need it most. This function package enables the customer to adapt quickly to new market requirements.