Surimi

Picking line for surimi packaging

The surimi sector and other processed seafood products

Recently we had an application case of a company in the fish and seafood industry, dedicated to the production and commercialization of surimi sticks, among other products. They presented us a common problem in the sector, as it is not the first time that we have designed and developed machines for this type of application. What did the company need?

The challenge: A robotized line for surimi packaging

The customer was doing the packaging process manually, which required a considerable investment in manpower. Since it was a repetitive and unrewarding task, the company was experiencing significant problems
related to absenteeism and high staff turnover.

The product to be packaged in cartons are fresh surimi sticks, which arrive randomly and at up to 500 pieces per minute.

The challenge has been to develop an intelligent system using vision-guided robots to pick up the randomly arriving surimi sticks from the pasteurization and cooling unit, and place them correctly oriented on trays or in the flowpack machine.

The solution: A picking line with product recirculation and artificial vision

We implemented a modular robot cell equipped with machine vision, ready to detect product arriving from the production line and pick it up to deposit it into the required container at high speed. By means of a
vibration feed, the products are separated and positioned to be recognizable by the robot’s vision system. Additionally, if the robots do not pick a product, the product recirculation system, which consists of multiple conveyors, transfers those products back to the line infeed. For this application, a mixed 2D and 3D machine vision system was integrated. The 2D vision allows to detect both product and color, thanks to which it places the top layer always with the correct product color. The 3D vision, in addition to having the same features as the previous one, allows to pick up product assembled by recirculation;

What did we achieve?

01_

A significant reduction in waste thanks to a product recirculation system and vision cameras that allow the robots to pick up overlapped or stacked products.

02_

More accurate and hygienic operations.

03_

Avoid errors and injuries associated with manual operations, such as stress, new personnel, etc.

04_

Possibility to digitize line efficiency data.