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CONTACT
INFORMATION:
1801 Iron Horse Drive, Suite B Longmont, CO 80501  303.682.1200 303.682.1227 Fax |
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 While silver traditionally shines brightly during anniversaries marking 25 years of accomplishment, true-blue is the steadfast color of consistent consonance that got BluePrint Automation (BPA) to where it is today. There are many reasons for its success, which has been built on a rock-solid raison d'etre of customer service that is shared by every engineer, designer, fabricator, assembler, salesman and office worker in the 200-person organization. "We are driven by the belief that the customer is always right," said Bob Prakken, the entrepreneurial industrial engineer who founded Holland-headquartered BPA. "Our first job is to appreciate and understand what our client wants. Then we make sure that every step taken or application made is part of a total process that delivers desired results. Everything starts with an order, and satisfied customers lead to more orders." The company has long been in the forefront of designing and manufacturing flexible bag handling systems that are built to last and deliver lasting cost savings to food processors. Once their product is "in the bag" BPA's modular machines pick up the pace to move it safely and securely into the box. Since 1980 BluePrint Automation has delivered more than 2,000 end-of-line solutions to food manufacturers, makers of pharmaceuticals, powders and other products distributed in pillow, block-bottom, wrap-around, doypack and four-sided seal bags. BPA's installations span the globe, from high-volume frozen french fry factories in North America and Europe to vegetable processing plants in the Benelux, from snack food factories in Mexico to cookie and cracker bakeries in Argentina, and from potato chip manufacturing plants in Japan to cheese production facilities in Australia. BluePrint Automation's client list reads like a "Who's Who" in the international food industry, and a look at the BPA product line illustrates why this is so. The catalog runs the gamut from automatic gravity feed and vertical packers, to horizontal packers, Smart-Trak high-speed pocketed collation systems for integration with robotic pick and place case packers, robotic FlexPickers, semi-automatic bag collators, automatic case erectors, crate loaders, industrial PC control systems, PFI automatic seal testers, the Swing Machine robotic case packing system for horizontal and vertical loading of cases, and more. "We start where the film is cut. As soon as a bag drops from the vertical form-fill-seal machine, we take over. Everything that goes on from there to the pallet is our responsibility, " state Chairman Prakken as he explained the functionality of BluePrint Automation's modular gravity case-packer (MGC) for horizontally placed products. The system, designed especially as a workhorse for handling heavy items such as broccoli florets, french fries and candy, integrates a number of components to assure highly efficient loading of bagged product into master cartons and other secondary containers that protect contents during warehousing and shipment to retail stores and foodservice outlets. Throughput in excess of 150 bags per minute is possible. (To read more, CLICK HERE and download the full article) |
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Systems
integrator pairs machine vision systems with robotics, enabling
its end-user customers to inspect items in line at high speeds.
BluePrint Robotic Solutions' consumer packaged goods customers are improving their packaging operations with In-Sight vision systems from Cognex that identify and inspect items conveyed down a line. The In-Sight systems take pictures of an area on the conveyor, convert what they see into digital information, and relay that information to a robot that's typically positioned just downstream. The robot uses the information to pick products from the conveyor and place them into a primary package, pick primary packs and place them into secondary packs, or move a secondary pack into a tertiary package. The In-Sight system can also be used as a stand-alone inspection device to veryify assembly, wrapping, and labeling functions. "one reason we're excited about the In-Sight 5000 Series is that they're IP 67-rated for washdown environments, and that's ideal for our applications," says Joseph Crompton, director of software and controls for BluePrint Robotic Solutions, a division of BluePrint Automation Group. "Our specialty is in harsh environments where there's frozen, or "raw", uncovered food." Typically, BluePrint Robotic Solutions pairs one In-Sight camera system with a delta-style robot. Most often, the robotic equipment comes from ABB. "In-Sight is simple to program, easy to interface with the robots, and we've used it in applications at speeds up to 200 cycles per minute," says Crompton. Crompton says the system can work with a variety of controls and communication systems. "It can be as simple as RS-2332, using Ethernet, DeviceNet, or aother protocols. The robot has a proprietary controller built into it." Another attribute of the Cognex system Crompoton appreciates is its "spreadsheet-style of interfacethat's more on the level of PLC Ladder Logic, where with just a minimal amount of training, shop floor personnel can go in and make some program modifications. That's unique to the In-Sight. It's pretty powerful," he says. Costs, however, may be the central reason BluePrint Robotic Solutions and its customers appreciate the Cognex machine vision sensors. "The old PC-based vision systems were $25,000 to $30,000," Crompton estimates. "The In-Sight has come down in price to $3,000 to $5,000, so you can have one per robot and still beat the cost of the big, older vision system that was spread out across multiple robots. "There's an economic threshold that each company uses to justify a capital investment," the continues. "The In-Sight has allowed us to get below that cost justification threshold so that customers can get the payoff in the time they are seeking," he says. "Typically one robot can replace one person, and sometimes two, so labor reduction is a key economic justification. If there are multipe line shifts, the justification becomes easy." A "soft" justification for an investment in a turnkey robotic vision system, he says, has to do with existing or potential repetitive-motion injuries and their financial implications. Crompton credits these advantages with not only benefitting CPG companies, but also with helping to build BluePrint Robotic Solutions' business. And that's a vision he's delighted to see. BluePrint Robotics, Phone: 303.581.9600 Cognex Corp, Phone: 877.264.6391 ABB, Phone: 262.785.3400 |
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