Heidelberg is preparing to expand the use of robots across the industry. Currently it offers the P-Stacker as a robot for loading a pallet with folded sections of finished products and has developed a robot capable of loading and removing plates from a press.
This is merely the tip of an iceberg that will introduce robotics to printers in many guises.
Robotics are a way “to take quality, efficiency and productivity to the next level” Heidelberg says in a white paper which outlines its thoughts on the robot age.
And for Heidelberg robots run hand in hand with automation, typified by its Prinect workflow, and with artificial intelligence, which comes under its PAT development. “Automation takes the guesswork out of production processes” and “robots can handle repetitive tasks with more precision [than people] over long periods of time”, it explains in introducing the topic.
Automation is confined to one machine, say a Speedmaster XL106 with push to stop and closed loop colour technology. Robotics introduce external automation, with guided vehicles, collaborative robots and dedicated industrial robots. All will feature in the printing industry’s future. The P-Stacker, which can load sections from a high speed Stahl folder is already a dedicated robot. Instead of a specialist tool, say a welding head, the arm is fitted with a gripper head introducing flexibility to cope with different folded formats, substrates and pile thicknesses.
Such robots can cope with loads of 2 tonnes at a time and can load 300 packages an hour to a pallet. Clearly Heidelberg has further plans for the P-Stacker beyond the folder.
The collaborative robot, cobots, is slower because it has to work alongside a human operator. Its handling capacity is limited to 35kg, plenty for filling a pallet from a folder, but perhaps not enough for future more demanding applications. Nevertheless the population of cobots is expected to soar in coming years says the white paper. Just 2% of the 3 million robots in use around the word are cobots currently.
Other robots discussed include warehouse robots to load stores and pick components, chatbots, robot drones and for logistics around a press or finishing equipment.
Heidelberg’s second robot is the plate to unit system that the major online print providers are either implementing or considering the technology. There are three stages to Heidelberg’s development of the concept: to move a plate cassette to each press unit using gripper technology; to ensure consistently high productivity the plates needed to loaded to the cassette in sequence; the benefits are reduced stress on operators, fewer damaged plates and fewer remakes and a faster make ready.
And the white paper concludes: “In printing we see increased use of robotic functions to improve precision and productivity and reduce time while the use of automation and artificial intelligence help to coordinate and optimise production and operation.”
