Safety system equips repackaging line with secure guarding and more space efficiency

An integrated safety system from Pilz has given a German equipment manufacturer all the reassurance it requires for creating variety trays of prepared supermarket salads.

The Pilz system is designed into a 25m-long sort packer engineered by A+F Automation und Fördertechnik, tailored to the needs of a well-known German chilled foods producer. The modular line is designed to repackage trays of single-variety fresh salads so that they appear in a ‘colourful’ mix of salad types on the tray or on the supermarket shelf.

A+F has equipped the sort packer with a modular, hybrid safety system consisting of a higher-level process controller and safety controller from Pilz. This works in conjunction with the decentralised PDP67 field distributors and the new PSENslock 2 safety locking device from the same supplier. This combination is said to offer optimum protection and reduced wiring, while taking up less space in the control cabinet. 

The sort packer is based around six delta robots with vacuum-based picking heads, which transfer filled salad containers from six lateral infeeds on to a conveyor. The newly-arranged containers are transferred into empty trays placed on a parallel conveyor. A further robot operation folds and positions board inserts as a cover for the bowls.

Head of engineering at A+F Michael von Zmuda explains that Pilz tends to be customers’ preferred supplier for safety systems. “The holistic solutions and expert advice from Pilz not only make our systems particularly safe, but also easy to operate and convert. And therefore more competitive overall,” he says.

Pilz, for its part, emphasises how its safety systems have evolved over time, leading to incremental productivity and efficiency gains. So, while for many years A+F used the tried-and-tested PNOZmulti Classic controller, it now uses what Pilz describes as the smaller, more flexible and powerful PNOZmulti 2.

There are multiple infeed and removal apertures and magazines on the delta robot section, in particular, all secured with protective devices. The PSENslock 2 safety lock secures no fewer than 12 gates on the A+F machine.

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www.pilz.co.uk