ABB to Showcase Robotic Innovations at Pack Expo 2019

ABB’s technological advances provide the efficiency to package more products on the same lines, switch between products with minimal downtime, and quickly ramp up to full-production speed for new products.

• ABB and ABB’s B&R Industrial Automation will share adjacent booths, bringing together the most advanced solutions for flexible, high performance packaging automation.
• ABB robots with B&R ACOPOStrak Intelligent Track Technology allow “on-the-fly” changeovers that make cost-effective, mass customization down to batch size one a practical reality.
• Next generation PickMaster^® Twin software with digital twin technology shortens commissioning times from days to hours, and cuts changeover periods from hours to minutes.

In this era of almost unlimited product options the need to efficiently serve a wide range of customer preferences is a critical challenge facing food and beverage, healthcare and consumer product manufacturers.  The resulting shift toward high mix, low volume production in shorter cycles must be accomplished without compromising cost, quality and delivery. In order achieve the necessary production flexibility manufacturers are increasingly finding that the unmatched agility of robotic automation is the solution.

At Pack Expo 2019, September 23-25 at the Las Vegas Convention Center (Central Hall, Booth #C-2051), ABB will showcase several major new technological innovations that provide the engineering and commissioning efficiency to package more products on the same lines, switch between products with minimal downtime, and quickly ramp up to full-production speed for new products.

Also, for the first time ABB Robotics and ABB subsidiary B&R Industrial Automation will share adjacent booths, bringing together the most advanced solutions for flexible, high performance packaging automation. By combining the two complementary portfolios, ABB is the only company that is able to offer customers the entire range of integrated hardware and software solutions around control, actuation, robotics, sensing and analytics.

Highlights of the ABB Pack Expo 2019 exhibit include:

IRB 360 FlexPicker^® with B&R ACOPOStrak Intelligent Track Technology: The industry-leading, pick-and-place Delta robot seamlessly integrated with the highly flexible B&R track system quickly routes products from processing station to processing station on independently controlled shuttles. The system adapts to the variables of the product being packaged, rather than the product conforming to a rigidly sequential process.  This allows “on-the-fly” changeovers that make cost-effective, mass customization down to batch size one a practical reality.

Third-Generation PickMaster Twin Software with Digital-Twin Technology:  The third-generation of ABB’s PickMaster software for robotic picking and packing applications is equipped with digital twin technology for the first time, which shortens commissioning times from days to hours, and cuts changeover periods from hours to minutes.  PickMaster now offers greater flexibility and visualization of all complicated robotic maneuvers including flow-wrapping, tray loading, case and carton packing and handling applications.

Modular Palletizing Demo. Challenge the robot!: Visitors to the ABB booth can reconfigure boxes on a pallet, and the ABB vison-equipped IRB 460 palletizing robot will identify the new pattern and begin to de-palletize the random configuration.  See how ABB can adapt to an infinite variation of boxes on the fly!  SafeMove2 with SICK safety scanners allow visitors to safely collaborate with the robot by slowing and then stopping the robot as they approach.  The demo highlights the flexibility and modularity of ABB robotic palletizing and de-palletizing systems integrated with ABB’s 3D vision system.

ABB Ability™ Connected Services:  ABB’s unified, cross-industry digital offering — extending from device to edge to cloud — with devices, systems, solutions, services and a platform that enable our customers to know more, do more, do better, together.  All ABB robots come ready to be connected to ABB Ability™ Connected Services, wirelessly or hard wired, unlocking a world of possibilities in predictive, proactive and immediate support, anytime, anyplace.

ABB will also supply a dual-arm YuMi^® collaborative robot and an IRB 1200 robot to the “PACK for a Purpose: Robots Fighting Hunger” area in the Robotics Zone in the North Hall. The robots will be packing backpacks with food throughout the show for children facing food insecurity across Las Vegas and elsewhere in the United States.

The ABB booth is open from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm each day of the show.