Small Team, Big Output: The Wine Bottler Bulles Création Automates Its End-of-Line with Robotiq Cobot Palletizing

In the heart of Provence, a little French bottling firm is verifying that automation isn’t simply for big makers. Bulles Development, based in Valréas, has actually increased its manufacturing tempo and raised the physical stress off its drivers by releasing a Robotiq PE20 Palletizing Workcell at the end of its bottling line.

Established In 2014 and based in Valréas, in the Provence area of southeastern France, Bulles Development is an 7-person firm that provides bottling solutions for neighborhood wine makers while likewise creating its very own gleaming drinks, consisting of red wine and non-alcoholic alternatives like kombucha.

The obstacle: expanding need, an aging line, and a literally requiring work

Bulles Development constructed its service on versatility, bottling for neighborhood wine makers while creating its very own bubbly beverages. However as need expanded, the firm’s manufacturing devices could not maintain. Its product packaging line was covered at 1,500 containers an hour.

The traffic jam had not been simply speed up. It was likewise the toll handbook palletizing tackled drivers. Everyday, employees took care of containers of 6 or 12 containers evaluating approximately 20 kg, piling them at a rate of about 4.5 containers a min. That amounted to 4 to 5 tonnes raised daily.

” Labor scarcities, physical stress, the requirement to increase performance … this automation task intended to offer an efficient solution to a number of difficulties shared by numerous food and drink firms.”
Bruno Quenin, co-manager of Bulles Development

In addition to the area and labor restrictions, Bulles Development required an option adaptable sufficient to adjust palletizing to its film-wrapping action, instead of a stiff, single-purpose configuration.

To resolve it, the firm spent greater than EUR1 million to restore its bottling line and automate almost all of it. The transforming factor came with the Prod & Load exhibition in November 2024, where Bulles Development’s management fulfilled Isycod, Robotiq’s assimilation companion for southeastern France.

The service: a small Workcell constructed for a limited manufacturing flooring

Room was the making a decision restriction. Bulles Development’s manufacturing flooring is limited, and a typical commercial robotic, with the hefty safety and security fence it calls for, merely had not been a choice.

The firm transformed to the PE20, Robotiq’s automated Palletizing Workcell constructed around a UR20 collaborative robot from Universal Robots.

” It’s the density, the simplicity of usage, and the capability to adjust to numerous container and pallet layouts, all while satisfying the details restrictions of our manufacturing website, that led us to pick the Robotiq Palletizing Workcell extremely promptly.”
Bruno Quenin, co-manager of Bulles Development

Isycod finished the assimilation at the end of the line, which called for wise sequencing of the container circulation via an independent roller conveyor with 3 barrier areas. The system instantly rooms containers apart to avoid accidents and maintains the cobot fed in actual time.

One distinct item of the task was the assimilation of 2 movie wrappers straight right into the Workcell. That allowed the line run palletizing, covering, and pallet discharge to delivery as one constant series, without any hands-on handling in between. The tough component had not been software application, it was mechanical. Isycod needed to fit those movie wrappers to the Robotiq criterion without considering significant software application adjustments.

That’s likewise where Robotiq’s software application gains its maintain. Operators set up, readjust, and launch palletizing dishes by themselves, without any innovative robotics or programs abilities called for. Changing in between container or pallet layouts is equally as quick, allowing drivers reconfigure the line themselves without calling outdoors assistance.

Outfitted with a 3 kg Robotiq vacuum gripper constructed for hefty containers, the cobot currently takes care of containers evaluating approximately 20 kg, placing the UR20’s 25 kg haul to function. Performing at a consistent 4 cycles per min and backed by indigenous level of sensitivity sensing units that cause an instantaneous quit on call, the cell runs securely without a security cage.

The outcomes: capability increased, with area to expand

One year after automating its line, Bulles Development is currently seeing the benefit.

• Tempo increased: the firm currently creates around 2,500 containers per hour, up from 1,500
• Clearance for development: the brand-new line can rise to 4,500 containers per hour, offering the service a lengthy path to range
• Less missed out on possibilities: Bulles Development can currently fulfill more powerful need, handle brand-new quantities, and broaden its customer profile as opposed to denying manufacturing for absence of capability
• Much better operating problems: hands-on palletizing, and the bone and joint problem threat that featured it, has actually been eliminated from the work
• Higher-value job: drivers without palletizing currently add to R&D on brand-new internal items

” Today, I do not recognize why everybody isn’t doing this. Collective palletizing has actually truly aided us. This task reveals specifically just how tiny and medium-sized French food and drink firms can improve their manufacturing devices to end up being much more affordable, expand their order publication, and end up being much more eye-catching companies.”
Bruno Quenin, co-manager of Bulles Development

A design for tiny makers

Bulles Development’s tale is a suggestion that automation does not need a big impact or a big group to settle. With the best companion and the best cobot, an 7– individual firm can restore its end-of-line, increase its outcome, and provide its individuals much better, more secure job to do.

Intend to see if joint palletizing fits your manufacturing flooring? Try our Palletizing Fit Check to verify expediency, or check out the PE20 Palletizing Workcell on your own.

Uncertain if palletizing automation is best for you? Beginning with intelligence.

Among the largest obstacles makers encounter prior to purchasing automation is unpredictability. Will it suit my plant? Will it manage my items? Will the numbers in fact benefit my procedure? These are reasonable concerns, and they are entitled to actual solutions prior to any kind of dedication is made.

That is exactly what Robotiq IQ is built for.

IQ is Robotiq’s AI-enabled platform developed to take makers from initial inquiry to deployment-ready Workcell quicker and with better self-confidence. It is not a sales device. It is a design and service recognition system that offers you the info you require to make an educated choice.