Block modularity, customisation and high performance: the automation and robotics trajectory for E-Commerce and Logistics of the future

ANGELINI TECHNOLOGIES - FAMECCANICA SOLUTIONS FEATURED AT THE INTERNATIONAL PARCEL+POST TRADE FAIR IN AMSTERDAM

Papick, ItPick and Depax are the robotics solutions dedicated to the logistics and forwarding sector that Angelini Technologies – Fameccanica – a company of Angelini Industries, an Italian industrial group active in the health, industrial technology and FMCG sectors – is presenting during these days at the Parcel+Post Expo Fair, one of the main international events for the postal and parcel industry, which is being held until October the 24^th  in Amsterdam.

The three applications are part of the path that the company’s robotics team, which deals with the design, development and manufacture of technologies, products and services to improve industrial processes, is pursuing to design innovative modular and technologically advanced Warehouse&Logistics systems, capable of meeting different needs while achieving high levels of performance and efficiency.

Modular and customised solutions are developed (from simple to more sophisticated tasks) to meet different technological needs and adapt to specific layouts, thanks to the use of 3D vision systems based on artificial intelligence and installed on the end of the robotic arm.

Specifically, Papick is an automated sorting system for the collection of parcels weighing up to 5 kg, primarily designed for the e-commerce and postal sorting sectors. Thanks to AI integrated vision systems, advanced workflow management and efficient barcode reading systems, Papick can pick and sort, with a single robotic arm, up to 1800 packages per hour with an efficiency of over 98%.

Depax, indeed, is a depalletizer, a platform capable of transferring objects or packages of different sizes from a pallet. Depax combines robotics and advanced machine vision to manage the randomness of incoming pallets and perform depalletising with maximum precision. Depax processes up to 600 packages per hour with dimensions of 60×60 cm and up to 30 kg in weight. The system is intended for all operators in the shipping industry who handle arrivals of mixed pallets with highly variable and unknown contents.

A particularly versatile solution is ItPick, an automated system capable of picking individual products and therefore adaptable to different configurations. It has a high-speed performance of up to 1600 cycles per hour and an accuracy of over 95%. It can effortlessly handle different product variants in terms of colour, shape, material, weight, opacity or surface flatness.

At the fair will also be present an integrated and modular solution, End of Line, that is placed downstream of the manufacturing plants and carries secondary packaging: it wraps products inside the boxes and palletises them. The system consists of different modules such as box forming, box filling, box closing, palletising island with automatic pallet management. Each module has its own intelligence and a central system that manages all modules and the movement of packages between them, including the various quality controls necessary to ensure the highest quality standards and tracking. The modularity of the system allows it to adapt to any plant layout requirement. In addition, the individual modules are enhanced by robotics and digital control that provides flexibility to change boxing patterns and palletising matrices. The system is capable of processing up to 90 incoming products and filling up to 30 boxes per minute.

„The machines that we have chosen to present at Parcel+Post Expo are representative of the contribution that we can make to the logistics and e-commerce sector with our consolidated know-how” explains Alessandro Bulfon, CEO of Angelini Technologies – Fameccanica. “ Thanks to their modular nature, speed, precision and ability to integrate they can certainly also make an important contribution in terms of efficiency and sustainability of industrial processes applied to logistics.“

Sustainability is in fact another of the main drivers of the design activities of Angelini Technologies – Fameccanica, which has also recently developed and patented Greenpackt®, the first machine for the automated production of eco-sustainable packaging, which allows a reduction of about 50% in CO₂ emissions compared to the production of similar plastic packs. The robotic system developed by the company for single-dose detergent capsules also goes in the same direction: thanks to an accurate detergent dosing system, which also involves the use of artificial intelligence, it is possible to minimize production waste while maintaining a high production speed.

The numbers of Angelini Technologies – Fameccanica

With more than 600 employees in Italy, the USA and China, more than 200 million in turnover, 80% of which comes from exports, and more than 1,100 patent rights, Angelini Tecnhologies – Fameccanica operates not only in “converting”, the production of industrial machines in the ‚hygiene‘ sector (production of items such as nappies, sanitary napkins and single-dose detergent capsules), but also in robotics and industrial automation, mainly applied to the logistics of organised distribution and e-commerce. The third area of activity is sustainable packaging, which led to the development of Greenpackt. From the year of its foundation in 1975 to date, Angelini Tecnhologies – Fameccanica has built 1,300 production plants, sold in 58 countries. The company operates from three production sites in Italy (San Giovanni Teatino, in the province of Chieti), China (Shanghai) and the United States (West Chester, OH)

Of the 600 employees, more than 500 work at the Italian headquarters in San Giovanni Teatino, of which more than 200 are engineers involved in research and development, hardware and software design and production.

The company was founded in 1975 by Angelini and was an equal joint venture between the Angelini Group and P&G from 1992 to 2022. In 2022 Angelini Industries regained 100% control by acquiring 50% from P&G.