ABB Helps Teway Food Smart Factory Achieve Transformation

New Opportunities for Teway Food

Teway Food(Stock: 603317 (SHA)) is a well-known enterprise in China’s compound condiment industry. In addition, Teway Foods has more than 20 years’ experience in the research and development, production, and high-quality compound condiments’ sales. Then, ABB Robotics and Vtops Machinery collaborated in the Teway Food Smart Factory in Chengdu. They provide a series of automation solutions for the post-packaging process of smart factories, including intelligent feeding, intelligent packaging, intelligent warehousing, and intelligent traceability. These integrate a total of 65 IRB 360, 10 IRB 6700 and 3 IRB 660 robots. and machine vision aids. Last, these upgrades have helped Teway Food become the first company in the industry to use 3D visual positioning to assist in feeding manipulators.

The upgrade of the production line has also brought new opportunities for Teway Food. Specifically, after the upgrade of Teway Food’s smart factory, the single-line production capacity increases more than two times, the per capita efficiency increases more than 6 times, and the single-piece manufacturing cost dropped by nearly 40%. Therefore, Teway Food has achieved the goal of automated, digital, and intelligent integrated management of the production process.

Accurate and high-speed – help enterprises improve efficiency

First, the traditional polyphonic industry has the labor-intensive industry characteristics. At the same time, their production line automation is low, and the market competition is fierce. The entire industry’s production efficiency needs improvement. The market environment problems are also shows in Teway Food. There are many kinds of small bags in Teway compound condiments, and the sorting mode of the previous small bag packaging machine is highly dependent on labor. This method is inefficient and has a high error rate. Especially in feeding applications, due to the high work intensity and single work content. The quality and efficiency of work are generally low.

Secondly, Teway is the latest company in the industry to use 3D visual positioning to assist manipulators. The manipulator mainly belongs to the intelligent packaging machine and performs feeding work. In addition, the IRB 6700 has a load capacity of up to 150kg to 300kg. Its structure is rigid and has a long running time without obstacles. Compared with manual work, the robotic arm can significantly extend the working time and improve the working quality.

Last, the machine vision system of the intelligent packaging machine can quickly acquire a large amount of image information and process it automatically. At the same time, it can accurately identify the position of the incoming basket and guide the robotic arm to grab and place it. Even if the basket is not full of pallets, the robot can still pick it up successfully. Moreover, it will not scratch and is suitable for scenes with complex and changeable stack shapes and random types of boxes. The combination of 3D vision algorithms has the advantage of being more flexible and faster. In summary, the intelligent packaging machine system improves the overall operation efficiency and formulates digital standards for automated management and control for the industry.

Highly flexible – unlocking rich application scenarios

The continuous outbreak of food safety incidents has triggered a crisis of confidence among many consumers in food brands. Smart factories have implemented some measures to ensure food safety. First, the smart factory not only guarantees the hygiene and efficiency of the production process internally, but also carefully designs a visible quality guarantee method for consumers. According to the official website [1], the entire production line is equipped with multiple sets of metal detector, checkweigher machine and other testing equipment. These equipments could ensure non-compliant products do not end up in the hands of consumers.

In the process of sorting and assembling baffles for small packages, ABB used the IRB 360 to grasp and assemble packages through 2D and 3D vision guidance. This technology breaks through the grabbing and placement of disorderly incoming products. Additionally, the IRB 360 has excellent movement performance and short takt time, and can still be finely arranged in a compact footprint. Finally, the 3D vision system can position and guide the robot to achieve accurate grasping of the target material. Even in the case of overlapping packages, ABB’s visual algorithm can capture products, making package arrangement more efficient.

ABB independently developed a vision algorithm with conveyor line tracking technology (VGT). This technology allows robots to adapt to complex conveyor belts quickly and efficiently. and maintain high speed. It is used to read the position of the material and send it to the robot system in the process of sorting out the package. In the automatic packing process, the position of the material can be read and sent to the robot system. After that, read the package QR code and send it to the database for two applications. These improvements increase packaging refinement and digital support.

Transparency – traceability throughout the entire process

Food safety issues have gradually attracted public attention in recent years. At the same time, the problems that have erupted in the industry have also reduced consumer confidence. However, the packaging machine manufacturers of Chinese have introduced some measures to improve food safety. First, the smart factory not only guarantees the hygiene and efficiency of the production process internally. At the same time, it also thoughtfully designed a visible quality guarantee method for consumers. The entire production line is equipped with multiple metal detectors, weighing detectors and other testing equipment to exclude non-compliant products.

TTO labeler machine from Vtops Machinery enable Tianwei Foods to build healthier and more reliable business relationships with consumers. TTO is integrated on the labeling machine, through the combination of object codes, the informatization of the process can realize the monitoring and traceability of the whole process of product production. Ensure food safety. When consumers receive the product, they can also scan the QR code to check the entire life cycle of the product and enjoy the food with peace of mind.

In conclusion, under the wave of digitalization, Teway Food’s smart factory has allowed us to witness a high-quality, high-efficiency and high-safety industrial transformation and upgrading of the compound condiment industry. We believe Teway’s story can give consumers more confidence in the deliciousness and safety of the food industry. Meanwhile, Vtops Machinery looks forward to extending the advanced automation and digital technology to more food manufacturing and processing enterprises. Finally, hopping the intelligent packaging industry and related manufacturers can continue to promote the healthy development of China’s food industry.

References：

1. Teway. (2022). TEWAY FOOD. https://www.teway.cn/