Tartu Mill is an Estonian company with a long history located in Tartu and is specialised in the production and importing of flour and flour products. The predecessor company of Tartu Mill was founded as far back as 1885 and has continued its operations throughout the years. In 2010, the company was given its current name – Tartu Mill – and is now one of the largest food industry companies in Estonia.

Before:

The storage of products is one of the easiest operations in the production cycle to automate and benefits both the former packing employees and the production company. Like many companies, the client wanted to automate/robotise the storage of flour bags, i.e., create a palletising system. Automation can significantly improve productivity and create better conditions for employees by reducing the share of manual labour while adding intellectual tasks related to the maintenance of the system, allowing employees to generate more added value.

The objective of the project was to design, build and program a robotic palletiser together with the necessary automation system that would utilise conveyors to transport material to the automatic pallet wrapper and then to the output conveyor.

The challenge:

The first challenge we were faced with was the planned location for the robotic station – it was to be placed under a low beam, which meant very thorough preparatory work (3D simulation, calculations, measurements). In the end, we were able to find a suitable location and calculate the robot motion trajectories, the implementation of which allowed us to install the robot palletiser in the desired location.

In the case of this project, a great deal of emphasis was put on thorough data analysis. As part of the project, both the automation system, robotic station and its related parts (tool, conveyors, secure area) were designed; an automation panel was constructed; all the necessary work was carried out on site, including cable routing and installation as well as installation of conveyors and safety fencing, etc. Both the management of the automation system and the robot were programmed.