With HME, an established mechanical engineering company recently acquired by KraftPal, the Company gained first-hand access to a technology partner capable to bring KraftPal’s existing production line development to the next level. The 5th generation of KraftPal’s production technology builds on years of extensive R&D efforts and experience gained through the development and ongoing operation of its predecessors. The new Palletonator 5.0 will be launched in Tampere, Finland as a part of the company’s developments in Scandinavia.
Without compromising the production line’s output, the engineering team reduced the machine footprint from 800 m2 to only 200 m2 by replacing continuous motion production with stop-and-go technology integrating 8 best-in-class robots while optimizing individual component lines and improving reliability due to smaller number of moving parts.
The complete production line is placed on steel platforms, enabling efficient transport in 6 standard containers and seamless and quick integration at the final destination. By fully assembling the individual modules, i.e. component making lines, already in the machine production facility the assembly team can attach and start up the production line in 2-weeks’ time instead of 6 to 8 weeks.
With previous Palletonator generations requiring 1 hour of work by machine operators and technicians to adjust the production line to produce a different kind of product, the new generation features a pneumatic system that reduces changeover time by 90%. Compared to its predecessor the new Palletonator will significantly improve flexibility and responsiveness of the whole production required by the clients.
The whole machine operation is monitored and managed by a centralized system collecting thousands of data points from sensors to ensure a smooth production process, raise alerts in case of sub-optimal performance or notify the machine operator about required maintenance. Using a centralized data warehouse and AI KraftPal is able to monitor all production lines across the world and employ predictive analytics to steer tech and maintenance teams across the world.
Using Visual Components solution to plan, develop, test, and simulate the Palletonator in a detailed 3-D environment, KraftPal has created a platform to facilitate training for machine operators and technicians and provide exceptional technical support through AR headsets to its technical staff across the globe.
