Workflows in the factory of the future require a high degree of collaboration. This applies both to the interaction between different development and technology partners and to the harmony between man and machine. Kraus Maschinenbau and Omron are demonstrating what this can look like in the packaging environment in a cobot project that the companies have been working on over the past few months. The focus of this development is a collaborative robot, the Omron TM12 cobot, which optimizes automatic booklet feeding. These are multi-page package inserts that are added to insulin syringes or other medications in the pharmaceutical sector, for example.

Joachim Kraus, Managing Director of Kraus Maschinenbau, reports: "Cartoning machines have become faster and faster in recent years, and this development is set to continue. There are systems that can produce up to 500 packs per minute. In addition, the booklets for some medical products, especially high-priced ones, are becoming thicker and thicker. If around three meters per minute are to be fed, this can no longer be achieved manually and with a simple product magazine. Together with Omron, we have therefore developed a system that provides a remedy and significantly speeds up packaging processes in the pharmaceutical sector." The booklets are stacked on one-meter-long bars, known as traces, picked up by the cobot and fed into the system.

Analysts predict that the cobot market will reach around 5.6 billion dollars in 2027.

Analysts at Interact Analysis forecast that the cobot market will reach around 5.6 billion dollars in 2027 due to the ongoing development of new application scenarios - also in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. The TM12 illustrates the potential of cobots: it is a modern robot that has been specially designed for collaboration between humans and machines. It is easy to transport and has an integrated vision system, which enables quick start-ups and product changeovers. Thanks to the intuitive software, the Cobot can learn almost any task. It relieves employees of repetitive tasks and helps to increase productivity. Marc Schönenberger, Field Sales Engineer Automation and Drives at Omron, comments: "Thanks to our fully integrated image processing in the robot, it can perform even complex and changing tasks such as palletizing changing products in a productive environment. This means that an existing production system, which was previously designed for and dependent on manual filling, can be seamlessly expanded to include full automation without any significant adjustments."

The TM-Cobot's camera, paired with modern lighting technology, enables object detection in a wide field of view and ensures object recognition under almost all conditions. The image processing system increases the reliability, consistency and precision of pick-and-place processes such as booklet feeding in the medtech environment. In addition, there are functions such as pattern recognition, barcode detection and color recognition, which are essential for many inspection, measuring and sorting applications.

The Cobot project from Kraus Maschinenbau and Omron is expected to be presented at Achema 2021. as