Recently, a manufacturer found an excessively high level of the harmful substance glycidol in its sweets during product tests - and immediately launched a recall. Fortunately for consumers, such emergency measures work very efficiently these days. Thanks to digitalization and identification systems such as the Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC), also known in Germany as the "shipping unit number" (NVE) - an 18-digit identification number that manufacturers attach to the Euro pallet via a label. Using this number, they can immediately determine the current location of the batch in the event of a recall and, ideally, ask logistics companies to take the pallets to the bulky goods warehouse and dispose of them later. Even before the goods reach the consumer.

In order to apply the life-saving labels to the pallets with the SSCC, manufacturers have generally used traditional pallet labelers - usually gantry systems that allow labeling from two sides via the x and y axes. Labeling on a third side, as actually envisaged by the SSCC standard for the future of logistics, is very difficult to implement mechanically. "In order to offer manufacturers maximum flexibility in labeling for the future, we decided to develop a new type of automation system for three-sided labeling," says Hubert Lachner, Managing Director of MFG Technik und Service from Kranzberg near Munich. Founded in 2001, the system integrator for industrial marking technology has 15 locations in Germany and Austria and has now implemented individual marking solutions for 500 customers, including Frosta, Edeka and Erdinger, using inkjet printers, thermal transfer technology and laser technology - from advice on brainstorming to integration and service. "The heart of the new system was to be an articulated arm robot that can apply labels to the pallets not just from two, but from three sides." The right name was quickly found: Label Monkey.

Robolink RL-DP including controller for little money

But before Label Monkey could start labeling, MFG had to find a suitable robot arm. A search that turned out to be a challenge. The labeling specialist finally found what it was looking for at Igus, a plastics expert from Cologne that manufactures cost-effective robots made of high-performance plastic. The Robolink RL-DP, a black five-axis articulated arm robot that can position a payload of up to 30 N within a range of 790 mm, was to be used in the future. "The housing is manufactured cost-effectively by injection molding from high-performance plastic, as are components such as gears and joints," explains Reiner Nusser, specialist for automation technology and robotics at Igus. "As a result, the Robolink RL-DP costs just a fraction of the price of classic metal articulated arm robots at 7,200 euros, including the controller and control software." After 16 to 24 months, this amount has already paid for itself.