Allied Technology Blog

Allied Technology, in partnership with Universal Robots, is helping to fight childhood hunger by packing food in bags for kids at this year’s Pack Expo in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS, NV – For the next three days, Allied Technology will exhibit an incredibly compact packaging solution to package food into bags for kids in need—a Blessings in a Backpack charity event at this year’s Pack Expo in Las Vegas.

Situated in the new Robotics Zone, Allied Technology will participate in the Blessings in a Backpack charity event where they will help pack 6,000 bags of food for kids in need of weekend nutrition across the country.

Allied Technology’s show machine will demonstrate how easily collaborative robots (cobots) can be deployed at various stages throughout the end-of-line packaging process.

Utilizing four Universal Robots E-Series robots, Allied Technology’s show machine will showcase a fully automated end-of-line packaging solution, including: vision-guided conveyor tracking, robotic pick and place, bag dispensing, bag loading and unloading, bag sealing, case erecting, case loading, and robotic palletizing.

“We want to show how simple it can be to not only deploy cobots at different stages, but also show how multiple robots can seamlessly work together to complete an entire end-of-line packaging process,” explains Matt Halley, General Manager at Allied Technology.

The machine begins feeding six different products onto a conveyor and through a vision enclosure equipped with an infrared camera. The camera detects the product’s location on the belt, while an encoder tracks the conveyor’s belt speed and product position. The first robot (UR5e) receives the encoder signal and camera information. The robot picks the product off the conveyor and places it into a bag at the bag loading station.

Once a bag has two breakfast items, two dinner items and two snacks, a second UR5e removes it from the bag holder and seals the bag. The filled and sealed bag is placed on a pedestal for the next cobot to pick.

A third robot, this time a UR10e, will pick a tote from a stack and erect it using a mechanical end of arm tool. The UR10e will pick a filled, sealed bag from the holding pedestal and place it into the empty tote.

After the tote is filled, the full tote will travel down the roller conveyor to the palletizer. Equipped with another UR10e, Allied Technology’s Robotic Palletizer picks filled totes from the conveyor and places them onto a pallet in a 3×2 pattern.

Allied Technology has also included a side demo, adjacent to the roller conveyor, where the same UR10e will pick two small boxes at a time off a modular belt conveyor. Just as before, the palletizing robot will pick and place in a standard palletizing pattern, this time on a separate pallet.

The robotic palletizer will alternate palletizing totes and boxes onto their respective pallets, to demonstrate the versatility of this equipment and technology.

Allied Technology is a machine builder and integrator specializing in robotic packaging machinery, since 1997. They design, develop, manufacture and integrate end-of-line packaging equipment. Headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, they have packaging machines operating in facilities of all sizes and industries across the country.

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If you would like more information about this topic, please call Matt Halley at (303) 502-7753 or email matthalley@allied-technology.com.

This week, the Allied team will be at Automate and ProMat checking out the latest trends in automation, robotics, and material handling for 2019. Although we will not have a booth at this particular show, we are excited to be demonstrating our collaborative robotic palletizer and case packing machine at PackExpo Las Vegas in September!

It’s been a great year so far here at Allied Technology. We’ve been very busy with a few installations from our new line of collaborative packaging machines

Last month we completed the installation of a couple of our new collaborative robotic palletizers, and this month we are wrapping up the installation of a large side-load case packing machine for club packs, using two Universal Robots UR10’s.

Remember to sign up for our newsletter for upcoming packaging machines available for purchase from our website, and remember to not miss us at this years PackExpo Las Vegas!

Let’s face it, with the accessibility of robotic automation, and the unreliable and unpredictable workforce nowadays, it doesn’t make sense not to automate your process. The robotics landscape has seen significant change in recent years with the welcome arrival of collaborative robots (cobots), allowing for flexible, mobile and modular possibilities. By investing in cobot integration, factories can spend less money automating a system and earn quick returns by eliminating unnecessary downtime.

Robot integration for a long time was very expensive, and understandably so. A team of experienced engineers was needed to correctly integrate robots into a facility and bring complex automation equipment together safely. Often times, there were bugs and issues that had to be bandaged later in the process because it was too complex or time consuming to reprogram the robot cell from scratch. Downtime was lengthy when issues arose and required integrators to schedule a visit many weeks out from when the initial problem was recognized.

This often resulted in endless delays and a finished product that often fell short of specifications. Unfortunately for the customer, this left them with no other choice but to accept a system out of necessity to get production back up and running.

Fortunately, robot and automation technology has since seen major improvements. During the last few years the automation industry has shifted its focus towards correcting the problems many companies face when trying to integrate robots into their facilities. Robot costs have decreased significantly, and with the successful introduction of cobots in the last few years, the cost to automate has been reduced even further. Not to mention, the ease of use has been dramatically improved.

Most of the big robot players have made it a critical task to improve the usability of their robots, with the goal to eliminate the need for an expert to program it. Integrators alone can now program, troubleshoot, reprogram, and make corrections significantly faster and thus eliminate unwarranted costs associated with robots. More importantly, this new method of cobot integration can reduce downtime so customers can keep production running.

Now, robotics integrator Allied Technology has taken the next step forward, once more reducing unnecessary costs associated with integrating robots. During his 30 years designing and building custom machinery, Allied Technology’s Mike Halley had a vision to create flexible, modular robot cells that can easily be implemented and redeployed when necessary.

“Throughout my career, I worked on many automation systems that handled an entire process with one large, dedicated machine set to run at maximum speed. This was great when everything was running perfectly, but when a problem came up, the whole system had to shut down until it was repaired,” Halley explains.

“By focusing on multiple smaller robot modules as part of a fully integrated system, you only sacrifice 10 to 20 percent of production, instead of having to shut down the entire line.”

For nearly a decade, Halley and his team of engineers have worked closely together to make this a reality.

Since collaborative robots first entered the U.S. market, Allied Technology has been researching and developing innovative solutions and, finally, has an answer to recurring requests for the modern automation landscape.

They are offering a variety of robot “cells” that require minimal modifications to suit any specific application. Their in-house machining and prototyping affords them the ability to make the exact adjustments to a given project quickly and of high quality, while eliminating the extraneous costs and time of outsourcing these processes.

Allied’s robot programming is very straightforward and robust so that making alterations can be as simple as re-teaching waypoints, which are possible for operators and managers to complete if necessary. Their cobot and automation solutions are designed to be modular, scalable, flexible and easily redeployed for future needs. This means any system purchased now, can be reused as products and production lines change.

An assortment of products and integration services are available from their new Cobot Store and Solutions page. Customers can choose from a variety of different robots, grippers, stands, fixtures, and other automation equipment, so they can get started integrating their own robot cell. If customers need help with any complicated portions of an integration process, they are encouraged to purchase blocks of integration hours from Allied Technology’s team of engineering experts.