HMPS 7000 pick and place crate packer

The HMPS 7000 is a pick and place crate packer designed to receive, collate, and pick and place 2 and 3 L bottles into two crates per cycle, then move completed crates onto a transfer conveyor. HMPS designed and built the first prototype, and now has a blueprint.

The crate packer can pack 200 x 2 L bottles/min, which equates to 22.2 crates/min. It allows for a variety of bottle sizes and weight, as well as packaging formations and crate sizes.

Product is conveyed from upstream processes in single file, and immediately enters a diverter on the infeed conveyor. At the end of each lane, the product is held by an end stop until a sufficient number of products have been collated. The collated product will be pushed into a nest that will retract once the correct number has been allowed through.

The transfer and loading of the product from collation to the crate is performed by a programmed robot arm and product-specific tooling. The robot will move to the fully loaded collation station once it has the signal that the station is full.

The tooling will then engage the product, lift the product from the collation station and transfer it to the crate. It lowers the product into the crate and releases. The robot will then return to the home position.

The main electrical enclosure contains the PLC, servo controllers, VF drives and control hardware.