The growth of omnichannel retailing means that distribution centers and logistics warehouses need to shift their operating models: on the one hand, they need to handle pallets and packaged goods to the retail shelves, and on the other hand, they need to pick and package a wide variety of packages to reach consumers.
A faster, higher load and more flexible parallel robot, the new IRB 390 FlexPackerTM supports custom packaging, vertical packaging and a wide range of high-speed pickings, as well as on-demand order picking for logistics and e-commerce order fulfillment centers.
ABB FlexPicker
The growth of omnichannel retailing means that distribution centers and logistics warehouses need to shift their operating models: on the one hand, they need to handle pallets and packaged goods to the retail shelves, and on the other hand, they need to pick and package a wide variety of packages to reach consumers.
Another important factor driving the shift is the growth of direct-to-consumer (D2C) and direct-to-store (D2S) shipping, which has dramatically changed the way consumers source goods. With the growth of the remote shopping population, home delivery is no longer the most environmentally friendly and economical way. Under the new shopping model, consumers have more choices, such as online shopping, offline pickup, in-store pickup, and more recently, robotic street kiosks where customers can pick up, purchase and pick up items.
Retailers need to select and process a wide range of items from the widest product portfolio in the shortest possible time, which requires the right infrastructure to increase flexibility.
Speaking at InterPack 2020, ABB's head of Consumer goods and service robotics, said: "We are helping retailers embrace an omnichannel strategy to meet the diverse needs of consumers. "The growth of direct-to-consumer channels and the merging of e-tailers with traditional retailer roles is putting pressure on traditional order fulfillment systems to process a wide variety of items at a faster pace."
Leading automation technologies, such as faster, higher-load robots and artificial intelligence powered by vision systems, will give customers unprecedented ability to identify and handle a wide variety of products with agility.
With FlexPicker® robots and PickMaster® software, including the recently released PickMaster® Twin, ABB is at the forefront of driving change in global logistics, electronic order fulfillment and retailers, helping customers meet the changing needs of consumers.
ABB PickMaster-2
ABB will officially launch the IRB 390 FlexPacker at the end of 2020, which will further empower customers to drive this change. The IRB 390 FlexPacker robot will be available in four - and five-axis parallel versions, offering a 35% increase in speed, a 45% increase in operating range space and a load of up to 15 kg compared to the IRB 360-8/1130 FlexPicker.
The IRB 390 is designed for customers in the food and beverage, logistics, pharmaceutical and consumer goods industries with its speed and flexibility to support shelf easy packaging and retail easy packaging, making it ideal for secondary packaging and high-load applications. The robot can be used in food secondary packaging (dry and wet), beverages, medicine, medical, personal care, pet care (food and other), consumer packaging and logistics industries. The IRB 390 will also be equipped with NSF H1 food-grade lubrication with FDA-compliant materials suitable for use in clean environments. All exposed transmissions and bearings will be FGO and FGG(H1).
Marc Segura added: "With the new IRB 390 FlexPacker, ABB has enhanced its automation portfolio to enable customers to face today's challenges and take advantage of the latest opportunities. "We are combining the speed, load and agility of FlexPacker, the high-speed picking and packaging capabilities of FlexPicker, and the advanced visual and digital Twin technology of PickMaster Twin to help customers build more flexible production lines than ever before for low-volume, multi-variety, high-load production."
With the IRB 390 FlexPacker and IRB 360 FlexPicker, manufacturers will have the ability to create complete pre-sorting and combined packaging solutions. For the past 15 years, the IRB 360 FlexPicker has been a leader in advanced high-speed picking and packaging.
The FlexPacker was also designed to work with the PickMaster Twin. The PickMaster Twin is ABB's market-leading robotic software for visually guided random flow picking and packaging applications, and its digital twin features allow users to build analog packaging stations to optimize the picking process. The software reduces commissioning time from days to hours and production line conversion time from hours to minutes, greatly improving production efficiency. The software also features a powerful color vision system that supports up to 10 cameras for precise positioning tracking and feature detection.
