Shivkumar Srinivasan – MELSS

Touch Free Manufacturing with Robotics for FMCG

Shivkumar Srinivasan — Sat, 24 Jul 2021 05:38:33 +0000

The FMCG manufacturing cycle – for products including processed food, beverages, dry goods, cosmetics, toiletries and prepared food – starts from raw materials and ends with the finished product, followed by despatch. To ensure minimum contamination, uniform quality and hygiene, touch-free manufacturing is resorted to. While automation using conveyors, silos and batching is used, robotics also has an important role to play in the process.

Processed Food

Processed food items such as chocolates, biscuits and different types of bread have turned to robotics to improve efficiency. Handling such items requires specialised robots with food-grade EOATs. Operations such as weighing of raw powders and scoring have also benefited from robotics. For pick and place prior to packing in appropriate packets also the robots need food-grade EOATs to handle these items, and vision systems to identify based on size and shape. These robots also help to pick and place raw produce such as fruits and veggies for sauces and jams, as also in cutting meat slices.

Beverages

Items such as smoothies, coffee, tea, juices and shakes use programmable robots for mixing the right proportions of fruits, bean grades or tea grades. Food grade robots are used for processing the raw items. For bottled beverages, vision sensors are used to ensure optimum filling.

Cosmetics

Cosmetics such as eyeliner, nail polish and face powder need different types of cobots to fill the soft containers optimally. Also, the vast colour palette of nail polish calls for more advanced vision systems to help the cobots distinguish based on colours and sort accordingly. The face powder pack needs to be capped appropriately before being moved to the delivery conveyor.

Many brands have turned to robotics for research and development of future products. Hair-care products use Collaborative Robots with appropriate grippers to simulate different styles of combing with the associated application pressure.

Toiletries

Many personal grooming products such as shavers, assembled from different parts, are created using different manufacturing lines for each part. For efficient pick and place of the small components, each robot is accompanied by a vision system. The frequently changing customer requirements call for models to be changed often. The robots used to handle them are programmable so that the same robot can be used for other models with a simple change of program.

Prepared Food

We touch different surfaces, thereby gaining contact with unwanted and hidden bacteria and viruses. For pure food preparation, untouched by hands, cobots are being deployed. Equipped with appropriate End of Arm Tooling (EOATs), the cobots can be programmed for various recipes. With relevant ingredients available at predesignated places within the kitchen, these cobots go about preparing healthier food using the precise amount of ingredients as programmed for the recipe. The use of these robotic kitchens is gaining prevalence today.

Packing and Palletising

Packing and palletising is the most important stage in the supply chain of many FMCG products. Consumers today are overwhelmed by choice in this era of online shopping and these fast-moving products are often dictated by the ever-changing consumer demands resulting in short shelf-life. Robots help in the fast packing and palletising of the finished products leading to shorter goods-to-person times.

Touch free handling of finished goods for packing is handled by food-grade EOATs fitted on the robots to ensure zero contamination. Palletising is handled by robots ensuring optimum quantity of goods in each carton. Pick and place is an important task in the packing and palletising process, needing accurate and quick storage and picking from appropriate bins in the warehouse. Robots have transformed the packing and palletising of FMCG in tune with the times.

Take a look at this Robotic Palletising Guide from OnRobot.

Common tasks

Over and above the mentioned roles, robots in FMCG perform quality control, when used with vision sensors. These robots are dexterous, capable of soft handling, unlike their counterparts used in other industries. Besides, all these robots are programmable for quick adaptability with different types of goods, as is the norm in the FMCG industry.

MELSS has been providing various industrial automation and robotics solutions to different industry segments, collaborating with major brands such as Doosan Robotics and OnRobot.

Benefits of UV Curing

Shivkumar Srinivasan — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 05:07:37 +0000

UV Curing technology has benefited many industries, providing superior bonding, improving efficiency, and ensuring lesser errors and wastage.

About UV Curing

UV radiation is widely used in industrial processes, in medical and dental practices for a variety of purposes, such as killing bacteria, creating fluorescent effects, curing inks and resins, phototherapy and suntanning. Different UV wavelengths and intensities are used for different purposes.

Applications in the Medical Industry

The medical industry is the biggest industry that finds use for precision spot UV curing of adhesives. Innovative and intelligent, lamp and LED UV curing systems are used for precision spot and area curing of medical device assemblies and additive manufacturing. UV curing systems are ideal for assembling a variety of plastics, glass, stainless steel, rubber and joining similar or dissimilar substrates as part of a controlled UV assembly process. The lamp UV curing systems include features such as Closed-Loop Feedback technology, irradiance adjustment and a selection of band-pass filters to meet UV process requirements.

Ideal Medical Device Manufacturing Applications include:

Catheters	Anaesthesia Masks	IV Delivery Systems
Cannulas	Angioplasty Accessories	Medical Coatings
Endoscopes	Arterial Locators	Medical Filters
Hearing Aids	Atraumatic Guidewire Tips	Rubber Silicones
Hydrogels	Blood Oxygenators	Respiratory Masks
Needles	Chest Drainage Devices	Sensing Devices
Tubing and Connectors	Syringes	Tubing Drainage Sets

Benefits to the Electronics Manufacturing Industry

UV curing is widely used in electronics applications for low-temperature, high-speed, repeatable adhesive bonding, component marking, encapsulation, masking and more. High volume UV assembly applications require precise control of irradiance, spectral output and temperature to achieve the throughput and yields necessary in an automated process. Spot and area curing systems meet the demands of electronics assembly for many applications, including,

Automotive electronics
Bluetooth headsets
Cell phone assembly
Compact camera modules
Digital projectors
Fibre-optic components
Liquid crystal displays
Micro speaker assembly
Optical data storage
Smart cards

Inkjet Printing and Marking Technology

Fibre optic cables are essential components of modern telecommunications infrastructure. These cables consist of multiple fibre-optic cores, fibre-optic bundles, bundling material, ripcord and even electrical conductors.

Fibre-optic cables must comply with a number of regulatory standards for marking the cable jacket. Cable jackets are typically made of medium-density polyethylene and high-density polyethylene as well as polyurethane (PU) and polyamide (PA), all of which present challenges for ink adherence.

Traditional marking or printing technologies for fibre-optic and electrical cables include embossing printing, indent printing, hot foil printing, hot stamp printing and sinter printing. Some of these technologies introduce unwanted stress into the fibre cables, while others are not entirely compatible, or in the case of an indent printer, can introduce safety concerns in the workplace.

UV-curable inks present an attractive alternative approach for marking fibre-optic cables. With this technology, ink is jetted onto the cable assembly using an appropriately sized and compatible inkjet engine, then it is cured with intense UV light. To enhance inkjet adherence to the jacket material, corona or plasma treatment is applied to the cable jacket immediately upstream of the inkjet head. Also, when using UV-curable inks, there are lower concentrations of solvents and no need to discard ribbon backing material as with indent or hot press printing.

The Equipment

OmniCure series small-area and large-area UV curing systems are designed to provide an exceptionally uniform area of high optical power with a range of wavelengths, configurations and sizes to address a variety of applications. Leading-edge UV LED technology also delivers improved energy efficiency and extended service life.

The Future

UV Curing technology is already witnessing automation which promises to improve the boundaries further. UV light sources fulfil a critical role in disinfecting our environments and protecting our populace from dangerous viral and microbial contamination. UV technology is currently used for touchless disinfection in a variety of applications to ensure the highest level of protection and efficiency.

UVC disinfection is a non-contact, chemical-free disinfectant method to kill bacteria or viruses and prevent them from replicating while offering a green process with vast environmental and social benefits.

MELSS brings you cutting-edge solutions in UV Curing solutions, representing Excelitas, USA In India

For more information on this, please E-Mail tpg@melss.com. Visit us at www.melss.com

Design of a robotic palletising project

Shivkumar Srinivasan — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 09:37:23 +0000

Palletising plays a vital role in any production line as it performs the task of the last mile before a batch is readied for despatch. It impacts the production metrics indirectly, as any bottleneck in the last mile before despatch will need a corresponding halt in production.

The design of any robotic palletising project involves a careful analysis of the environment – does it produce a specific range of products, or does the product range change, as in a warehouse environment. It needs to factor in the space available based on which choice has to be made whether to use a cobot or a robot. Here are some key points to consider while designing a robotic palletising project:

Identifying types of items to be handled

The first thing to be analysed are the types of items to be handled. The weight of each item needs to be calculated to arrive at the type of robot to be used, and also to help in creating an appropriately sized pallet. Is the pallet going to handle the same product repeatedly or will there be a mix of products, pallet-wise or different products in the same pallet?

Defining specifications of the pallet

The needs should be properly understood before creating the appropriately sized pallet with the optimum load-bearing capacity. Ease of depalletising also needs to be factored in, once the pallet has been used for maximum cycles. The pallets need to be placed appropriately on the conveyor. Some cases may involve packing prior to palletising, especially for handle-with-care produce such as eggs.

Choosing types of packing

Heavier items which are in powder or flake form such as cement or foodgrains are packed in bags instead of cartons. These items need high-speed robots to handle the palletising. Most other items are, in general, packaged in cartons.

Evaluating the space

The space available for the project needs to be analysed. Should a complete robot with proper fencing be accommodated to ensure non-interference with human activity, or Collaborative Robots which allow work alongside humans? Is there enough space available for an articulated 6-axis robot?

Designing the space

Factors such as the number of robots to be used simultaneously, and the variety of products to be handled need to be considered. Appropriate network of conveyors and lines need to be designed. The same robot may handle more than one type of product, and it should be able to pick each type from respective lines.

Recommissioning

It needs to be ascertained if the product mix will change over time. Some produce may be seasonal, and the palletising should adapt accordingly. The plan should accommodate maximum uptime of the robot, and the time needed for such changeovers should be minimal to ensure least impact on productivity and costs.

Planning for maintenance/repair

A full-fledged robot in an enclosure is ideal to handle heavier loads, but in the event of repair or maintenance it needs more time as the enclosure may be under LOTO and needs to be opened in emergency situations. Collaborative Robots take less time for repair/maintenance since they work alongside humans.

Selecting appropriate End of Arm Tooling (EOAT)

Depending on the products and the packages to be handled, an appropriate EOAT needs to be factored in which can pick and place more in a single cycle. A custom EOAT may also be needed for specialised items. Shelf-ready items are packaged in smaller sizes and smaller End of Arm Tooling may need more cycles for the same output.

Analysing the type of facility – centralised or distributed

The factors discussed above, assume a single facility handling a specific range of products. Centralised facilities need to handle products from other facilities too. These mostly comprise a complex network of conveyors and the palletising needs to be sensitised to such needs. While most requirements are for end-of-line palletisers, specialised requirements may need to be accommodated in earlier stages too.

Ensuring effective traceability

Each carton or pack in a pallet needs to be identified, and this needs the barcode or RFID to be read using appropriate visual scanners. This ensures maximum visibility of each batch for traceability, as is mandated in different regions.

Implementing support software

The entire setup should be supported by an able software to record the events and capture the data for analysis. This will be useful in recommissioning scenarios too.

MELSS has been involved in industrial automation and robotics projects for a variety of industries for the last 25 years. We provide a range of palletising solutions, from robotics to traceability, and each is supported by software too. For more: www.melss.com

The Indian Electric Vehicle Market

Shivkumar Srinivasan — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 07:23:22 +0000

The shift to Electric Vehicles (EVs) is happening world-wide, more rapidly in India today. The purchasing power of India’s burgeoning middle class is increasing, and more people are investing in vehicles. With the increasing cost of fossil-fuels in India, the need for EVs is acute here. However, the scarcity of lithium reserves made the Indian market dependent on other countries to charge the EVs, especially China which has control over 80% of the world’s lithium reserves. The ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ resolve of the government is pushing research on alternate means of charging EVs. The world is moving away from China in the wake of the COVID pandemic and is looking at India as a global manufacturing hub for EVs, riding on the already existing ecosystem of vehicle manufacture here.

Why EVs?

The major advantage of any EV is the ability to regenerate power, which is very useful in any urban environment which involves frequent braking and acceleration. With fewer moving parts EVs need less maintenance and lower operational costs. With no gears, combustion and mechanical drivetrains they are more convenient to operate. Home charging along with government incentives to EV owners such as Income Tax Deduction claim up to INR 150000 make purchasing an EV a wise decision. Besides, zero emission ensures minimal adverse impact on our health. Already, the number of EVs sold has witnessed quantum jumps, year-on-year since 2016.

Source: CEEW-India’s-EV-Transition-Post-COVID-19-22Dec20

The Charging Technology

Economic alternatives to the Li-ion charging have been developed and are ready for commercial use, such as Sodium-ion charging or Aluminium-air technology with abundant reserves available in India. With an impressive cost of manufacture in India, many multinational companies have either started or tied up with Indian companies to manufacture this alternative. Many automobile majors in India have already entered into agreements for use of these alternative charging mechanisms.

Incentivising the manufacture of EVs

In a healthy ecosystem, each state in India is wooing investment in the EV sector with various incentives. The world’s largest Electric Scooter manufacturing facility, OLA. is coming up in Tamil Nadu, and another Electric Scooter brand, Ather, has already started manufacturing here. Major heavy vehicle manufacturers (buses and lorries) are betting big with many state governments shifting their public transport to EVs already.

EV manufacturers, Tata Motors and Mahindra have tied up with an Aluminium-air charger manufacturer to power their EVs. The world’s largest manufacturer of Sodium-ion technology, Faradion, has set up base in India and should start production soon to offer an economic alternative to charge EVs. Major vehicle brands in India – Tata Motors, Hyundai, MG and Mahindra are already offering a line of EVs, and other brands will follow suit. With the expected entirety of vehicle manufacture in India shifting to EVs, the price of EVs will also be attractive as an alternative to fossil-fuelled vehicles. The abundant availability of chargers will make the charging process easy and smooth.

The Infrastructure to Support

The roadmap to EVs as a viable alternative depends on the charging infrastructure available.

“The government is pushing deployment of EV charging stations by providing capital subsidy through Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) India Scheme Phase II and state level initiatives. Further, the government has delicensed the activity of setting up EV charging stations to increase private sector investments and facilitate market adoption” – Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Government of India, Ministry of Power (https://beeindia.gov.in/content/e-mobility).

Under Phase I of FAME India Scheme, 970 charging stations have been installed, and 2877 more EV charging stations across 25 States/UTs have been sanctioned under Phase II. In a big push for the EV sector, the government shared plans to set up at least one EV charging kiosk at each of the 69000 petrol pumps across the country.

No wonder that the Indian Electric Vehicle Market is poised for growth, and many EVs (cars, scooters, 3-wheeled autos, and heavy vehicles such as lorries and buses – many state bus fleets have already completely shifted to EVs) are already on the roads today. Although the sales figures till today leave much scope for growth, the traction the industry is observing today promises phenomenal growth in the coming years.

Some EV manufacturers who are or maybe making EVs in India:

MELSS provides many electric vehicle test solutions, and has been keeping pace with the fast technology changes in the EV charging space, and brings you an exhaustive range of testing machines from Chroma ATE to test the chargers of EVs. We offer solutions catering to various standards, from AC/DC/CHAdeMO to CCS.

For more, please visit: https://www.melss.com/latest/assembly-test/electric-vehicle-test-solution/

Growing Industrial Robotics Adoption in India

Shivkumar Srinivasan — Sat, 24 Apr 2021 10:25:33 +0000

The Indian industry has grown by leaps and bounds since the economy was opened for foreign investment in the early 90s. Irrespective of the government of the day, the industrialisation policy has remained a constant. The states of India are competing with each other in a healthy investment ecosystem. In the last decade of industrialisation in India, robotics has played a key role. While adoption of robotics started in the automobile and electronics sectors, advances in robot technologies such as mobility, vision systems, grippers, connectivity and ease-of-programming have resulted in increased robot adoption in other sectors as well.

India, as a global manufacturing hub

What started with the automobile sector with almost all the major brands setting up manufacturing plants in India has now engulfed the entire industrial spectrum. The electronics manufacturing industry has established itself strongly in India with major home appliance and smartphone brands vying with each other to set up shop in India with the current Government’s Make-in-India drive. With the Government’s thrust on infrastructure development, industries in this domain have shown tremendous growth.

The very large and burgeoning Indian population with an ever-increasing purchasing power has led to a very high demand generation to sustain the increased supply from the rapid industrialisation. Quick availability of cheap labour coupled with the increase in education levels of the Indian population is another factor that is drawing more investment into India.

Against this backdrop of an increasingly industrialised India, products manufactured in India are finding a better value in the international market. Brands are able to sell their products at a competitive price globally. The internet has also turned the entire world into a huge marketplace for any company in the world today. This needs better manufacturing practices to compete at the global level. Increasing efficiency, reducing wastage, putting manpower to better use such as innovation and improving safety levels have all become major considerations of the industry today.

India and Robotics

It is but natural for all industries in India to look at ways and means to sustain and grow in today’s global arena. Robotics is playing a key role in the Indian industry to help it grow in volume and value. The automobile industry has adopted robotics on a large scale with almost all manufacturing lines in any unit in India adopting it. The electronics industry has embraced robotics in a big way too, with all brands having factories in India achieving greater profitability through the adoption of robotics. With the rapid industrialisation of India, industries across domains are adopting robotics in a big way.

The present regime has been speeding up the promotion of robotics and is adopting robotics in a big way, such as the indigenously developed ‘Daksha’ which is an automated mobile platform for multi-purpose payloads used by the Indian Army primarily for handling Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), ‘Mitra’ which is an indigenously built humanoid robot while ‘Manav’ which is India’s first 3D-printed humanoid robot used in research.

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, formed by a Union Cabinet resolution on January 1, 2015, is the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs. It signed a statement of intent with ABB to collaborate in the fields of Robotics and AI. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) signed many contract agreements with academia for developing technologies related to robotics and AI. The All India Council for Robotics and Automation (AICRA) was formed in 2014 with a vision to make India a global leader in the field of Robotics, IOT and Artificial Intelligence.

Industrial Robotics Adoption in India

According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), while the global annual industrial robot installation figures increased by 11% between 2014 and 2019, in India 4,771 new industrial robots were installed in 2018, increasing by a record 39 percent over the 3,412 units in 2017 which in turn rose by 30 per cent over the 2,627 units installed in 2016. India stood eleventh worldwide in terms of annual installations in 2018. Between 2012 and 2017 India saw a Compound Annual Sales Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18 percent.

The automotive industry accounted for 44% of total installations in India in 2018, while the general industry comprising of rubber and plastics, metal and the electrical/electronics industry grew by 28% and robotics in non-automotive manufacturing is fast catching up with the automotive sector, which presents a promising picture indeed (the growth of robotics in the general industry was an impressive 46% in 2017). Although the average robot density (the number of robots per 10,000 workers) in India is less than the global average, the higher growth rate should reflect in gradual improvement in robot density.

The outlook

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted sales and manufacturing in India, like elsewhere globally, the Indian economy has started looking up with the GDP turning positive again in this quarter compared to the downturn in the earlier 2 quarters. Subsequently, the outlook for robotisation has reason for cheer.

MELSS provides diverse solutions for robotics, and has tied up with major brands to offer a world-class range of COBOTs and End-effectors. For more information, please visit https://www.melss.com/latest/industry-4-0/robotics/. For a list of our partners, please visit https://www.melss.com/latest/partners/.

Measuring OEE – A Manufacturing Best Practice

Shivkumar Srinivasan — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 07:10:07 +0000

Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) was first described as the nucleus of the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) methodology in Seiichi Nakajima’s book TPM TENKAI in 1982. Gaining momentum from the late eighties, OEE courses have become a standard in TPM curriculum and their use is widespread across a wide range of manufacturing industries today. Although OEE has become a necessity today for survival in the competitive environment thrown open by the internet, the primary goal for which it was devised was to improve metrics leading to better business. Measuring OEE is a manufacturing best practice.

OEE score is a combination of 3 factors – Availability, Performance and Quality. One of the major goals of OEE is to reduce the six big losses of TPM and Lean Manufacturing which are covered by these 3 factors – Unplanned Stops due to Equipment Failure, Planned Stops due to Setup and Adjustments which affect Availability; Small Stops due to Idling and Minor Stops, Slow Cycles due to Reduced Speed affecting Performance; Production Rejects due to Process Defects, Reduced Yield due to Startup Rejects.

Implementing OEE has its own challenges which need to be taken care of. While discrete and batch processes are measurable, measuring the parameters in a continuous process is complex and needs special attention. The benefits of monitoring OEE are many, making it worthwhile to invest in the exercise. Here are some of the key benefits that make OEE so important for any manufacturing process.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Often huge investments are made on machinery and processes, and achieving maximum ROI in the shortest possible time is desired. By giving an insight into the six big losses, OEE helps the management minimise wastage and improve performance.

Ability to Measure and Decide

Actionable data is achieved only when it is measured. OEE allows the quantification of efficiency and visibility of the actual operation based on which decisive steps can be taken for business improvement.

Measurement of Actual Efficiency

Often the real process efficiency is much lower than what appears. Actual efficiency can be obtained only after measuring with OEE. Termed as ‘the hidden factory’, it uncovers valuable information for the management to act on.

Reduction in Machinery Repair Costs

The Overall Equipment Efficiency system is able to proactively reduce shutdowns, reduced speeds etc. Preventive Maintenance can be performed and improve the life of any machinery, saving valuable money for the company.

Scalability

Perhaps the biggest advantage of OEE is its scalability. It can be performed on any one machinery, and it can be implemented on more machinery in a phased manner, making it easy for the management to invest in a wise manner. It can also be implemented across a line, a zone, a site or for an group of factories.

Competitiveness

With the proliferation of the internet, the whole world has become a marketplace and competition is very high. By measuring the parameters with OEE, a business can invest the money saved on further research and product development and remain competitive.

Applicability to all levels

Information provided by OEE applies to all levels of the production process from the shop floor to the top management. It is insightful and fosters healthy internal competition among teams, while at the same time enabling the top management to work on maximising returns.

Visualised Performance

OEE visualises performance and categorises into the 3 broad divisions of Availability, Performance and Quality, finally narrowing down to the single most actionable metric.

Often it is a trade-off between any two parameters and improving one may result in reduction in the other. But the exercise in implementing it is worth the effort and makes perfect business sense.

Learn how MELSS can offer various solutions which help in improving OEE and implementing MES.