Robot picking with drylin® linear axis

• What were the requirements? The pick & place station identifies packages, picks them and hands them over to the operator. Fast-moving and maintenance-free linear axes, plain bearings and e-chain® were sought for the automated picking system.
• Which products were used? drylin® ZLW linear axis, iglidur ® J plain bearing, pre-assembled "readychain®" energy chain
• Industry: Material handling
• What are the benefits for the customer? The drylin® ZLW toothed belt axis keeps up with the lightning-fast movements of the robot, allows lubrication- and maintenance-free operation and runs smoothly.

Technology in detail: what the picking robot can do
State-of-the-art picking systems in pharmacies no longer need to be stocked by staff. As with the dispensing of medicines, this is already completely automated. The packaging is tipped into a chute, separated fully automatically, identified and transported to the designated storage location. In 2011, two Munich students were so fascinated by the system that they founded Magazino GmbH, which today develops modern robotic solutions for fully automated order picking: For pharmacies, industry, retail and online mail order companies. For example, a new pick & place station was developed that can independently identify and pick heterogeneous packages and feed them to the operator.

The system is amazingly versatile. For example, it can be positioned upstream of a paternoster warehouse or an automated small parts warehouse (AKL) and remove the parts requested by the operator from the rack. This also automates the last step of the picking process, the manual picking process. This is made possible by linking a powerful 3D camera with extremely fast linear axes and - most importantly - intelligent software that recognises the package, determines the gripping points and controls all movements.

Toothed belt axes for automation in logistics
Our drive technology is used in the three linear axes of the pick and place system. The drylin® ZLW 1040 and drylin® ZLW 1080 timing belt systems are used. As they run on plain bearings made of the high-performance polymer iglidur®, they are 100 per cent maintenance and lubrication-free. The timing belt ensures quiet running; the deflection shaft is supported by two deep groove ball bearings. These specifications make the toothed belt axes ideal for Magazino's intended application. Lukas Zanger, COO & Co-Founder of Magazino: "The axes achieve high speeds, they are quiet, fulfil our accuracy requirements and the price-performance ratio is also right."

Plain bearings and e-chain® are also in use
Magazino also makes extensive use of our plain bearing kit and also utilises the iglidur ® bearing bushes - and not just in the pick & place vending machine. Another example: Magazino has developed a compact bearing in carousel form with round bearing levels for the space-saving storage of small parts. The individual levels with a diameter of 2.50 m rotate around a main axis with a diameter of 50 mm and are each connected to the axis via iglidur ® J bushings. The iglidur® bearings play a supporting role here, which they have to fulfil over a long period of time. Lukas Zanger: "As the bearings on the centre axis are not accessible, they have to meet very high service life requirements." In addition to the bearings and the linear axis, energy chains from the readychain® programme are also used in the handling systems. The start-up company's developers are also closely following the trend towards fully assembled chains that don't even need to be wired. Lukas Zanger: "The chain with plug connection that igus recently presented® would be the system of choice for us."