High-speed Robots Handle 800 Cans a Minute

VARO’s complex sorting and packaging system ensures fast and efficient packing and palleting of goods in food processing plants. The technology frees up man-hours of workers due to higher efficiency and better quality control of the packaging process. 

Up to 107 million cans of mackerel roll off the production lines at Sæby Fiske-Industri every year. A high-speed packing system, delivered by VARO, ensures each can is sorted and securely packaged before dispatch, primarily to supermarkets throughout Europe.

ABB has supplied the five FlexPicker robots on each of the two fully automated packing lines. Between them, they handle 800 cans a minute – more than 700,000 a day. Integrated vision software ensures every can lives up to the factory’s high quality standards.

Automated packing lines handle 800 cans a minute and more than 700.000 a day

Meeting complex needs

For automated equipment supplier VARO, ABB’s FlexPickers were the optimum choice for carrying out complex sorting and packaging tasks. As Sæby Fiske-Industri is Europe’s leading producer of private label canned mackerel, the robots are critical for ensuring a fast and smooth switch between the many packaging types and patterns for packaging and palletising.

The packing system is also equipped with an X-ray device that detects metal and other foreign materials before the cans are sent for date printing and to the vision unit, which checks for any deviations on the actual can.

Since installing the packing lines, Sæby Fiske-Industri has improved efficiency and eliminated manual tasks that cause repetitive strain injury. Employees can now focus on other work, including servicing the robots and filling boxes at the packing stations.