Push, Group, Grab & Load Flow Wrapper
Strands of product organized in 16 lines or more across a product conveyor, as fed from an upstream extruder, pass through a cutter, where they are cut into a specific product length, 8-10”, as dictated by each SKU requirement.
The Farason machine organizes groups of 24 strands or more by pushing two columns of strands simultaneously off the continuously moving conveyor and into a pair of holders.
The pusher horizontal axis consists of an Adept Python programmable slide, in order to achieve the required cycle time and reliable accuracy. The plow is attached to a pneumatic vertical axis. The holders square the two piles of strands to ensure end alignment.
An Adept Viper 6-Axis Robotic Articulating Arm, fitted with a product-specific end effector, is utilized to complete the packaging process.
The end effector consists of a pneumatic multiple-finger arrangement that grasps a group of strands from each of the holders simultaneously and transfers them into the wrapper.
The groups are placed into the continuously moving, flighted conveyor of a Hayssen flow wrapping machine.
An encoder, mounted to the flighted conveyor, allows synchronization between the Hayssen and the Adept robot for accurate placement of the strand piles between the flights.
One of the two machines provided is a mobile unit and configured to integrate by means of a mechanical/electrical docking station, located at each of the two different lines.
Farason provided the design of our machines for field integration with two existing older model wrappers.
