Automated vial filling, capping and labeling machine with a FANUC SR-3iA SCARA Robot
Pharmacy Automation and Robotic Solutions: https://www.fanucamerica.com/solution...
FANUC America Authorized System Integrator Dynamic Automation & Robotics developed an automated machine to fill, cap, label, and inspect vials at a rate of 50 parts per minute for the medical industry, utilizing the new FANUC SCARA robot.
The process begins with the bulk infeed of the 4mL plastic vials into an elevated prefeeder where the vials are fed into a centrifugal feeding system. The centrifugal feeder orients and singulates the parts in a diameter-to-diameter fashion, and directs them into a gravity chute for accumulation.
The gravity track repositions the vials from laying flat to a vertical manner, and the outfeed is controlled by a tik-tok mechanism at the exit of the gravity track. The tik-tok mechanism also detects a reverse vial condition, where it grips and flips the vial to the correct orientation before it is placed into the nest.
The vials first go through a tare-in station, where they are slid onto a load cell for precise weight of the empty vial. They are then indexed under a dispense head where a positive displacement pump dispenses a predetermined amount of solution into the vial.
A FANUC SCARA SR-3iA robot then picks a cap from the shuttle with a compliant custom end of arm tooling, and initially engages the cap onto the vial. The vial is then indexed to a capping unit where it is screwed down and torqued to the final specification.
Custom inkjet text is then printed to the top of the cap as determined by the active recipe and is verified with a machine vision inspection at the next station.
A custom label applicator system is responsible for feeding and printing the product data on the label, and pans the label out into a compliant wrap roller system to adhere the label to the vial.
All data printed on the labels is inspected with machine vision optical character recognition for data accuracy.
After the label is applied, it then goes through another vision inspection to verify correct placement.
Parts are tracked throughout the system, and any non-compliant parts are offloaded into a reject bin by opening up the bottom floor that the vials are sliding on.
All compliant parts are fed into a diverter chute where they are directed into the final bins for offload.
