Project: Heemskerk fresh & easy, The Netherlands

Running oval, square and hexagonal salad bowls on one production line
Heemskerk fresh easy
Location The Netherlands, Rijnsburg
USP Interchangeable gripper
Diversity 3 products, 5 product patterns, one line

The challenge

Every week, around 3.5 to 4 million packages are shipped from the Rijnsburg location to large retail and fast food chains at home and abroad.

 

Due to the increased demand in recent years, the pressure on a sufficient workforce is also increasing. Peter van Kampen, manager Projects & Innovation: “Ultimately, you look for an optimal balance between good employees in key positions and robotisation where possible to save personnel. It is important that you look at long-term growth, continuity and cost savings.

The challenge? Design a flexible production line that can be used 24/7, allowing Heemskerk to run more volume on a smaller footprint and have more predictable costs.”

The solution

At Heemskerk fresh & easy we were dealing with various forms of salad bowls that were fed into the robot cell at a speed of 50 per minute.

 

A flexible industrial robot is the center of our case packer, the robot arm picks up the trays with a vacuum gripper and then accurately places them in cardboard boxes or crates. Lan also supplied the system for stacking and destacking crates and boxes, this is done before the packaging enters the robot cell.

Heemskerk automatisering

Some challenges we faced when designing this line:

  • Suitable for diversity of trays
    Heemskerk wanted to be able to run 3 types of products (ovals, squares and hexagonal salad bowls) over the line. The most optimal gripper depends on the type of product, the corresponding product pattern and the secondary packaging in which the bowl is loaded: a crate or a box. Lan has therefore developed a user-friendly gripper change system for 3 different grippers. An operator can make such a switch within one minute using the HMI.
  • Ready to increase capacity
    The robot cell is built in such a way that Heemskerk can later increase the capacity by having a servo pusher built in. The capacity can thus be increased from 50 scales to 70 to 80 scales per minute for certain patterns.
  • Product placement in a customer-specific box
    The salads are packed in a recognizable Heemskerk box. The cardboard boxes are 1/3 of a standard size and have overhanging edges, which requires very accurate placement.
Experience our user-friendly case packer yourself? Check out our simulation tool!

Heemskerk automatisering

Peter van Kampen, manager Projets & Innovations at Heemskerk:

“We have been orientating ourselves in the market for a longer period of time looking for a party that could offer a good solution for the case packing of our type of bowls. Glad we found Lan Handling. Lan has a lot of experience with companies that package similar products as Heemskerk. For this they offered a standard robot cell, with a number of Heemskerk specific adjustments on the input side of trays, boxes and crates. The advantage of a standard is that it has already proven itself.

The project approach

The project team was professional and knowledgeable and able to provide solutions to specific challenges within this project. The installation and commissioning was well prepared and as a result the downtime during installation of this production line was limited. The project was delivered with all necessary documentation and data, here various parties can take an example, the latter is certainly sometimes a shortcoming in the delivery of a project.”

Heemskerk fresh & easy about Lan
"Lan Handling has proven to be a professional party. Installation and commissioning were well prepared and therefore downtime during the installation of this production line was limited."
Peter van Kampen, manager Projects & Innovations

Next steps?

Lan engineers will start working at Heemskerk in June 2020, for the the installation of a second automated production line. This again saves many manual actions. In the meantime, three additional case packers have been ordered. These will be installed at the end of 2020.

Heemskerk fresh & easy about Lan
"Lan Handling has proven to be a professional party. Installation and commissioning were well prepared and therefore downtime during the installation of this production line was limited."
Peter van Kampen, manager Projects & Innovations
Heemskerk automatisering

Peter van Kampen, manager Projets & Innovations at Heemskerk:

“We have been orientating ourselves in the market for a longer period of time looking for a party that could offer a good solution for the case packing of our type of bowls. Glad we found Lan Handling. Lan has a lot of experience with companies that package similar products as Heemskerk. For this they offered a standard robot cell, with a number of Heemskerk specific adjustments on the input side of trays, boxes and crates. The advantage of a standard is that it has already proven itself.

The project approach

The project team was professional and knowledgeable and able to provide solutions to specific challenges within this project. The installation and commissioning was well prepared and as a result the downtime during installation of this production line was limited. The project was delivered with all necessary documentation and data, here various parties can take an example, the latter is certainly sometimes a shortcoming in the delivery of a project.”

Next steps?

Lan engineers will start working at Heemskerk in June 2020, for the the installation of a second automated production line. This again saves many manual actions. In the meantime, three additional case packers have been ordered. These will be installed at the end of 2020.


Questions? Want to know more? Get in touch!

Dino Boot

Dino Boot

Sales Support Engineer

Lan Handling

Our production facility

Haarlemmerstraatweg 157, Halfweg, The Netherlands