End-of-line packaging manufacturer Linkx Packaging Systems is now in an even stronger position to develop and supply versatile robot-based solutions after being appointed as a System Partner by KUKA Robotics, one of Europe’s manufacturers of industrial robots. Linkx Systems was selected for this appointment on the basis of the company’s experience and proven technical ability in the design and manufacture of innovative packaging machinery.
System Partner status will give engineers at Linkx Systems priority access to KUKA’s specialist application support and design teams in the UK and Germany, thereby ensuring that Linkx Systems is always in a position to be able to provide its customers with the full range of benefits made available by the latest KUKA developments.
“In fact, we’ve been using KUKA robots very successfully for some time,” said David Hayward, managing director of Linkx Systems, “and we are delighted that we have now been formally appointed as a System Partner, as this will enable us to make even better use of KUKA technology for the benefit of our customers. This is particularly important as end users are looking for more and more flexibility and future-proofing in their packaging lines. In many cases, robots provide the best and most cost-effective solution. Today, only a minority of packaging systems use robots, but we fully expect to see robotic solutions becoming much more dominant in the not-so-distant future.”
A particular benefit of the KUKA robot-based solutions developed by Linkx Systems is their versatility. Not only can they be adapted much more easily to accommodate changes in pack size and format than most conventional packaging machines, they can also, in many cases, be reprogrammed to support changed or extra functionality without the need for major mechanical modifications. It is even possible, if the original machine becomes redundant, to re-use the robots in new applications, allowing big cost savings to be made.
