ABB robots have increased productivity at Nestlé's Brazil plant by more than 50 percent

ABB's SafeMove cobot technology enhances worker safety while increasing the efficiency of Nestlé's confectionery factory.

ABB Robotics is supporting Nestlé, the world's largest food and beverage company, to improve pallet loading efficiency by 53% at its chocolate manufacturing plant in Brazil with a new ABB palletizing robot solution.

While the company currently uses ABB Robotics palletizing solutions, the latest requirement was the need for a more compact unit that could fit into smaller areas and could be easily replicated in other locations. An important requirement was the robot's ability to safely interact with employees, who occasionally needed to enter the palletizing area to speed up pallet changes. Developed by ABB and Nestlé's engineering team, ABB's new compact robotic palletizing cell features an ABB IRB 660 robot with suction jaw heads that move boxes from the end of the line to pallets for accurate stacking to ensure load balance, while SafeMove technology enables safe intermittent collaboration between robots and line workers.

"Food and beverage manufacturers like Nestlé are increasingly in need of greater flexibility on the production line, allowing them to adapt to changing consumer tastes and needs, and enabling their employees to collaborate intermittently with robots at production centers. At the same time, they need higher levels of productivity and efficiency while maintaining the highest level of product quality," said Sami Atya, President of Robotics & Discrete Automation, ABB. "Cobot technology like SafeMove helps us meet all of these requirements and allows us to bring automation to smaller spaces anywhere on the production line by eliminating the need for a lot of fencing."

SafeMove is ABB's robot monitoring software that detects movement and limits the robot's speed, movement and position when someone is approaching. This allows large industrial robots to work safely and reliably alongside people without the need for fences, safety switches, doors, and locks.

At Nestlé's Caçapava plant, using SafeMove instead of fencing, the footprint was reduced by about 30 to 40 percent compared to the previous ABB unit at the Nestlé plant.

The new plant has been so successful that it has now been installed at three more Nestlé plants in Brazil, where 13 palletizing units are already in operation and further installation and commissioning is underway. Financial details of the contract were not disclosed.

"Thanks to the partnership with ABB, it has been possible to develop solutions that make our manufacturing processes more flexible and efficient, ensuring that our products continue to be of the same high quality and excellence that make the Nestlé brand a success," said Michey Piavantinha, Plant Director at Nestlé Caçapava. ”

To show the customer how the finished cell works prior to installation, ABB uses its RobotStudio® software to simulate the complete solution in a virtual environment, including a display of the cycle time for robot operation. This ensures a shorter implementation time and avoids any failures that may occur during the start-up process.

Nestlé Brazil supplies a range of confectionery to South America, Central America and Canada, and the company's Caçapava site is the largest Nestlé Kit Kat factory in the Americas.

ABB robots have increased productivity at Nestlé's Brazil plant by more than 50 percent

ABB robots have increased productivity at Nestlé's Brazil plant by more than 50 percent

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