© Kaak
ROBOTICS
The right robot for the job Automating labor-intensive, repetitive work in bakeries by use of robotics helps perform complex movements and round-the-clock tasks.
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Besides the packaging area, where robotics are well established, production lines can similarly automate processes including storage, scoring, depanning and dough resting systems. Kaak develops robotic applications specialized in performing different types of tasks along the bakery line. The company started building 3D vision guided scoring systems using robotics and expanded the use of robots on the bread processing line for all kinds of handling automation. Fueling this development are the recent shortage and rising costs of personnel.
for products that are perfectly aligned on defined positions in carriers and scored in fixed patterns by a series of knives. This solution works well for mono-product lines. However, demands for a large variety of different luxury products with complex scoring patterns is growing, since it is a powerful way to reflect the brand identity and make products truly unique. This is where robots come into play. “Scoring is a very complex movement that was only done by humans. This is the clear advantage of the robot,” Michiel Dix, underlined. Traditionally, the baker ‘scans’ the product to determine how deep and where to score. The recognition of different products, their curve and height, as well as the cutting movement itself, is now also done by the Kaak robotic scoring systems. 3D-vision technology is instrumental to this. It recognizes the product’s position, orientation and shape and sends this
Scoring with robots Dough scoring has been vastly automated in industrial bakeries, observes Kaak; the company has installed around 200 robots. Conventional, xy-scoring systems were mainly used
Key points driving the use of robotics in bakery
+ Robotics provides simple solutions compared to more complex alternatives
+ Covid has fueled discussions on automation and
robotization. Limited availability of personnel and rising personel cost have triggered many bakeries to further automate their production processes using robots
+ Robots simplify production planning due to the
www.bakingbiscuit.com 06/2021
for Kaak's scoring aplications
Source: Kaak
absence of variations in availability of personnel.
+ Fast return of investment, e.g. as fast as 2-3 years © Kaak
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