Just like Rosie the robot maid from the 1960s cartoon “The Jetsons” helped the Jetson family with the housework and sometimes the parenting to ease the pressures of home life, robots in the beverage industry are helping to make industrial life a bit easier. The key to their helpfulness is the flexibility they offer, which helps manufacturers keep up with the changing beverage landscape, says Matt Job, business unit manager of Hartness International’s automation group in Greenville, S.C. “With the ability to handle greater numbers of product variants, smaller case counts, and lighter-weight packaging/packaging material, end-users are able to meet the trends that are moving across the market,” he says.
For example, Hartness’ High Speed Robotic Palletizers were designed to help increase overall line efficiency for lightweight packages as well as the smaller-count packages that are high in demand, Job says. The company also offers a flexible Variety Pack Product Mixing System, which is designed to build mixed-case solutions at a high rate while utilizing a small footprint, he adds.