MOBA ROBOTICS – The logical next step in Autopack

Many years ago Moba launched its vision of becoming a “Total Solution Provider”. Looking at worldwide developments in the food industry, we realised that the packing station in the ultimate future will become one integrated and fully automated process. A process that includes the egg grader itself, but also the further automation of consumer packs into cases, crates, onto pallets and displays, including all administration and traceability. In 2001 Moba started the Autopack program with a dedicated team, for exactly this goal.Since then many Autopack projects have been implemented.

Our service makes the difference: By teaming up with Motoman (Yaskawa) being market leader in industrial robots, Moba ensures world wide support and availability of parts and service. This will help us secure our long term commitment to our customers.

Robots
Although robots exist for many decades, the price performance ratio was not matching the requirements in our egg industry for large scale applications. For that reason we developed our series of dedicated case packers and display loaders. These systems perform very well in high volume operations and there will always be situations where these systems are preferable. The use of spherical robots opens up another market segment however, aiming for lower capacities combined with more flexibility. Unlike some integrators, we aim for standard solutions with full flexibility, using new robots for maximum reliability and serviceability. In short: the real break-through in a complete series of solutions has yet to come. Since spherical robots have developed rapidly as far as reliability and price-performance ratios are concerned, Moba carefully started a project for wide applications of robotics in the egg industry.

Long term commitment: Our service makes the difference
To create the best possible solutions for the egg industry, Moba teamed up with Motoman, a Yaskawa subsidiary and global leading supplier of industrial robots. With a portfolio of more then 175 different types of robots, the best possible robots were selected for the tasks in our industry. This in itself is a revolution, since many bad robot experiences in the industry were caused by wrongly (over-) dimensioned systems, merely because only “fast runners” from the automobile industry where affordable. Furthermore was a partnership with a strong and global operating company a must for us to meet our long term commitment to our customers. Securing availability of service and parts for many years is our highest priority: “Our service makes the difference”.

Peripherals: It is a widely known fact that while the robot is an essential tool, the true success and reliability of any robot installation is determined by the peripherals, such as logistics and pickup-head. Moba has experience with hundreds of different packtypes in the egg industry, all having special properties such as dimensions, lidtype and friction. This experience combined with the latest robot technology creates a unique combination.

Series
Moba developed a number of modular items such as pickup points, case alignment units, pallet positions and transport conveyors in such a way that they can be configured in a modular way. This enables a wide variety of configurations that can be made. All units are mounted on a stainless steel frame or an anti-corrosive pedestal that enable easy cleaning of the floor. Also all peripheral units are designed to withstand intensive cleaning of the floor by water. From our multifunctional “toolbox” we created, for now, the following configurations in our new MR-series (“Moba Robotics”):

Case Packer MR 10
A robot system that can pack consumer packs into cases and crates. It can pick up consumer packs directly from a block of 2 Omnia packing lanes or can be connected to the grader via a conveyor system. This can be a relative simple system to improve the logistic layout or a multi-functional Contiflow system that connects multiple packing lanes to multiple robots in a flexible way. The MR 10 can of course be fed by an automatic case erector.

Display Loader MR 20
A robot system that packs consumer packs into- or onto display pallets and shippers. Because of the size of pallets or shippers, limited configurations directly behind the packing lanes are possible. Most configurations will be using a conveyor system to move the MR 20 away from the egg grader.

Case-Display-Combi MR 30
The MR 30 is in fact a smart combination of the MR 10 and MR 20. This brings ultimate flexibility to your packing station. At one moment it is able to pack consumer packs into cases or crates while the next moment you can use the same robot for filling displays. Because the size of the displays and thus the equipment to handle them is bigger than the width of a block of packing lanes, most configurations will benefit from being positioned away from the egg grader by means of (either simple or full flexible-) Contiflow.

Tray Palletiser MR 40
On farms eggs are frequently put on pallets for transport. The MR 40 will palletise all common used systems of both plastic and paper trays, using wooden pallets and normal interleaf sheets or special system sheets. Configurations with 1 or 2 fixed pallet positions can be created and also automatic pallet transport conveyors are available creating even more full pallet positions. Automatic handling of empty pallets and interleaf sheets is of course included. Weighing stations can be included if required. When palletising with cardboard interleaf sheets, each layer can be 90 degrees turned, so that bottom and top cups of trays are exactly opposite for maximum stability. The capacity of the system is 108,000 eggs per hour.

Tray De-palletiser MR 50
In many situations eggs are transported to packing stations using a plastic tray system including specific pallets and interleaf plates. These pallets can be unstacked fully automatic using the MR 50. This system is capable of loading all loaders for Omnia 170, 330 and 500 with a continuous preloader conveyor. It can keep up with even the Omnia 500, that is 180,000 eggs per hour.

Case Palletiser MR 60
Consumer packs can be put in cases or crates by human loading, by CP 10, CP 12, CP 30, MR 10 or MR 30 case packers. These cases can be stacked on pallets for transport to the retail or distribution centre. The MR 60 can automatically load various types of cases on maximum 3 pallet positions. Depending on the requirements 1 to 3 pickup points can be used, resulting in capacities up to 12 cases per minute.