Robot stacker trialed at Seeka Kiwi Kool Packhouse in Te Puke
Seeka has started trialing a New Zealand-developed robotic stacker prototype at its Kiwi Kool packhouse (KPP) in Te Puke.
The Electrostack was designed and engineered by Sean Carey, an automation engineer at Electrodip. It can stack eight boxes per minute offering labour, time and cost savings.
Seeka’s KKP packhouse is highly automated with automatic box makers, fillers and closing already in use along with its camera graders, making KKP the perfect packhouse to trial the new robotic stacker.
Carey wanted to create a lightweight machine with a small footprint, suitable for smaller production facilities, while utilising locally sourced materials.
“The machine was built and programmed right here in Te Puke at the Electrodip workshop, including all the fabrication and wiring,” said Carey.
Seeka regional manager, Jarrad Bates, said he has been impressed with the trial so far.
“The fact it can stack and destack different pallets at the same time is great,” said Bates.
“The scanning system provides the traceability we need and being able to move it around easily is certainly beneficial.”
The Electrostack is currently being trialed on a slower manual infeed, but Bates is looking forward to seeing it in action on a highspeed line. “It will be good to see it running at max capacity,” said Bates.
Seeka’s chief executive Michael Franks said the company wanted to embrace the latest technology.
“At Seeka we apply leading-edge technology along with our expertise to lift productivity, add new revenue streams and deliver financial performance to our growers and shareholders,” said Franks.
