The ABB Speedy robot is an anthropomorphic robot with two polar axes often used in packaging machines as a fast “pick and place” in the 2000s, equipped with dedicated hardware and decommissioned around 2010.
THE CHALLENGE
Unilever Hungary‘s Nyírbátor facility needed to extend the life of a case packer equipped with an ABB Speedy robot that was mechanically still in excellent condition. To do this, it was necessary to upgrade the electronic control part, which was no longer available on the market either as hardware or software support.
Unilever’s request was to replace the old dedicated motion controller with a new one that was easily available on the market, to keep the Siemens S7-300 series PLC that managed the entire case packer, and to limit production downtime to one week.
THE SOLUTION
Drawing on our experience in robotics, Project Service decided to use a Siemens Simotion D-series with Sinamics S120 solution after several laboratory tests of the available kinematics.
To meet Unilever’s request to limit production downtime to one week, we completely simulated the technical solution in the laboratory, replicating the new hardware situation for the case packer to be upgraded.
RESULTS
The installation of the new configuration was completed within the time period requested by Unilever in January 2017, and also brought about production improvements thanks to the increased speed of the robot with the new kinematics.
Over the past year, we have invested in the construction of a new laboratory, which has been operational since July 2016, specifically to meet requirements such as those expressed by Unilever to keep response times as short as possible.
Today, all plants and machines are tested virtually in the new laboratory to reduce commissioning times, preventing issues or problems that often arise on site. The statistics gathered show that software start-up times on site have been cut by 50 per cent and by 80 per cent in cases served by Web Support.
