Touchless automation systems already are revolutionizing the way businesses operate, bringing things back into order, providing predictability and efficiency.

What exactly does it mean? That’s what I asked myself recently when I was at the Automate Show in Chicago. Let’s explore this buzzword.

Modern society has come a long way since the arrival of the Model T in 1908. From the early days of hand-cranking, no heat, unreliable mechanical performance and loud, dirty engines, there is no doubt that today’s automobile is a marvel by comparison.

As packaging lines have become more efficient, waste or problems on the line can become less visible and harder to identify. For example, lines might be slow due to multiple micro-stops, or overall line performance might falter due to lack of standard work or process for operators. We can miss what we don’t see.

For plants with limited floor space or a small budget, A-B-C Packaging Machine Corp's compact palletizer offers a simple solution to increase production and eliminate the cost and liability of manual operation. 

At Cascina Italia S.p.A., automated egg handling helps the company to speed up production while eliminating errors. Universal Robots' collaborative UR5 robot equipped with a pneumatic gripper gently picks and places trays of eggs to load corrugated cases with up to nine layers.

Standard-Knapp announces the addition of the 949 Tandem Pic-N-Place case packer to Standard-Knapp’s growing family of precision-controlled, servo-operated Pic-N-Place case packers.