Custom automation for packaging

Patreider designs and builds automatic machinery that guarantees production efficiency even at high speeds and constant repeatability of results. Focus on a new packaging line for tubes featuring Veltru robots (distributed in Italy by K.L.A.IN.robotics).

The latest creation by Patreider, TBS070, is a complete system designed to collect aluminium or plastic tubes and their boxes from two different lines upstream. If required by the product, the system can also insert blisters inside the shaped box, which, once filled, is transported to the covering machine downstream.

How the system works
TBS070 collects the folded and glued boxes from the casepacker upstream. The latter uses a pusher to transfer them to the loading belt and position them so that the blisters can be inserted.
As the product reaches the warehouse, a 2-axis Veltru robot picks up the blisters, and a gun applies the glue dots on them before they are placed back in the box, fixing them in place to prevent them from moving during the subsequent processing phases.
Ready to be filled, the boxes are then transported to the robotized tube placing area.
This transfer is performed by a carpet conveyor belt with servo-drive lateral guides which, once the position of the box has been detected, prevents them from sliding on the belt, guaranteeing perfectly stable positioning.
At the same time, the TBS070 automation system collects the tubes from the upstream filling machine. After passing through a weight-check (defective or irregular tubes are discarded), the tubes reach the “horizontal star wheel”, which rotates each one 180 degrees, with the cap facing forward at regular intervals, so that it can be taken by the “vertical star wheel” and moved to the robotized pick and place area.
At this point, the “vertical star wheel”, designed to firmly lift the horizontally positioned tube, rotates it to a standing position, so the Delta robot can pick it up.
The operation is executed by a cushioned picking claw specially designed not to dent the aluminium tube. Separate picking of each single product enables the robot to orient the tube within the box according to the customer’s specifications.
Finally, the boxes are filled and conveyed to the covering machine downstream where they are closed and sealed.

Handling different products and formats. Meeting the current needs of a market that demands maximum flexibility, smaller and smaller lots and increasingly personalized products, Patreider Srl offers an effective, efficient solution that fully meets customers’ requirements, based on the capacity to manipulate tubes of various formats (with 30, 40 or 50 mm diameter), different weights and heights, whether plastic or aluminium and with different types of caps, and all this performed very gently and precisely orienting the products in blister packs.
The capacity for handling different box formats and inserting a variety of different blister packs (single, double, in plastic, polystyrene or cardboard), guaranteed quick and easy format changeover (including for the operator on duty) are all perfectly in tune with the concern’s aim of growing with the future needs of its customer. These are fundamental characteristics that make the concern proud of its automation solutions.

A step ahead. What distinguishes the Patreider solution from others on the market is the concern’s choice to “follow a different path”. Generally, when the tubes are placed in the blister, linear motions are used to insert multiple tubes at once, making the kind of flexibility offered by the Patreider system impossible. By placing each tube individually, no pre-orientation is necessary. This is why this represents a step forward in the system’s innovation.
Another distinguishing feature of Patreider machines is that the blister insertion type can be selected from the operator panel. This option enables selecting exactly how to position the tubes in the blister, deciding whether to fill the box part automatically and part manually to create boxes of mixed products.
Finally, last but not least, the use of robots by the Swiss concern Veltru has proven a winning choice in terms of quality of construction and due to their technical features.   

Patreider Srl: a story of unique machines created according to the customer’s needs. The story of Patreider Srl begins in 1991 in Tai (Pieve di Cadore, BL) with an 88 m2 garage, a 25 million lira industrial PC (more costly than the entire site), a milling machine and a lathe. The concern, which is now based in the industrial district of Cima Gogna in Auronzo di Cadore (BL), is a specialist in the supply of turnkey industrial automation solutions for different sectors, including automotive, food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and general assembly. The concern also dedicates special attention to developing high tech industrial automation systems for pick & place of fragile products that integrate, where necessary, vision systems, while maintaining solid precision mechanics that fully meet the customer’s specific requirements. Patreider Srl’s commitment is to supply tailor made machines and special machines with exclusive patents to support the customer during all stages: from planning to creating components, from assembly to installation, from testing in the user’s factory to production and format changeover, and from regular and extraordinary maintenance to assistance and personnel training. The post-sale assistance service also guarantees quick and effective interventions whenever the customer needs them: flexible and tailored solutions developed specifically in order to ensure continuous improvement on all fronts, enhancing efficiency and reducing machine stops. Thomas Patreider, the concern’s founder (who in 2010 won the Innovation award of the Veneto region’s Union of Chambers of Commerce), continues to serve as CEO and is supervising the development of a number of new projects, including the automation of aluminium or plastic tubes handling.