ACE End of Line Cell
One operator ran four manual motions alone: folding cartons, packing a 20 lb product, taping, and palletizing. We replaced all four with a single Automatic Carton Erector (ACE) in the same footprint the station already had.
The line produces 10,125 cases of a single SKU every year on 8 hour shifts. Mounted to the robot as part of the automated cell, the Automatic Carton Erector (ACE) folds the flat into a carton, picks and places the product, and palletizes the finished case, continuously and at the same precision on case 10,125 as on case one. It runs as a mobile end of line unit that moves between lines or as a stationary setup.
INDUSTRY
Packaging
PRODUCT
Automatic Carton Erector (ACE)
Project Highlights
The Challenge
One person cannot repeat four manual motions at the same precision for eight straight hours, so cases taped in hour seven were not the same as cases taped in hour one, and every one of the 10,125 lifts a year came off the same operator. Any fix had to fit the existing floor space.
The Solution
A single Automatic Carton Erector (ACE) that folds, packs, and palletizes in one continuous motion, in far less space than conventional carton erecting machines.
Key Features
Designed for a range of box sizes, with a second arm that swaps in under a minute through a tool-less design, compared to an hour to half a day of changeover downtime on conventional erector systems.
The Result
10,125 manual lifts a year removed from the line, four manual motions turned into one repeatable one, and the operator redeployed to oversee the cell and catch the exceptions a manual line never had time to catch.
