The New IMA Palletizing Machines And Integrated Systems
The IMA End of Line manufactures a full range of end of line machines (wrapping, bundling, casepacking and palletizing machines) for the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, sweets, tea, coffee and tobacco industries, by supplying more than 5,000 machines worldwide.
Available in different versions ranging from a basic application, with manual pallet loading, to a more sophisticated one, with automatic empty pallet feeding and full pallet discharge, IMA End of Line palletizers are characterized by an extremely high level of technology and the utmost reliability.
The FLEX Palletizer has been developed to respond to the market requirements for high speed, flexibility and compactness of the palletizing section of the modern production lines. The heart of the machine is the FANUC robot (4 or 6 axis, according to the application) which picks up the incoming cases and places them on the pallet, according to a pre-set pattern already stored in the machine memory. The robot is flexible and very fast: picking up individual cases, ink-jet, labelling or weighing them before placing them on the pallet. All this can be done even at high speed. The machine can be equipped with large capacity and empty pallet magazine with automatic handling of empty and full pallets. Due to its modular design, the pallet handling section can be customised according to the requirements of the end user. A simpler version is also available, with one or dual position empty pallet loading station. The machine also features a standard PLC unit which interacts with the FANUC robot processor, thereby making operation straightforward. A large touch screen operator interface makes change-overs simple and assists with diagnostics. The machine is fully guarded by transparent panels interlocked with safety switches and light curtains in the pallet removal area. The machine can be supplied as a stand alone unit or connected to an IMA BFB top or side loading case-packer.
As a matter of fact the IMA End of Line has also developed a monobloc machine integrating side loading (HORIZONTAL CARTOPALLET) or vertical loading (VERTICAL CARTOPALLET) casepacking and palletizing into one ergonomic compact unit, an ideal solution in case of space constraint problems. Also for this application, the use of a 6-axis robot allows high standards of efficiency and flexibility. These machines have been developed to take into consideration market requirements such as the cantilever design of the structure, to ensure complete accessibility and easy cleaning. Furthermore, great importance has been given to the ergonomic position of all components: all the machine features can be reached from the operator side and the horizontal case magazine allows the manual loading of cases easily from floor level. The machine also features a standard PLC unit which interacts with the FANUC robot processor, thereby making operation straightforward. A large and comprehensive operator interface makes change-overs simple and assists with diagnostics.
Another even more compact solution characterized by extreme flexibility, is the integration of IMA BFB CP18 side loading case-packer with our MINIFLEX, to complete change over operations by setting the case on top of a pallet. This is a very economic solution for low/medium speed production lines.
Source: IMA S.p.A.