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Robot Accurately Places Bin Lids at 45/min

A supplier of PET preforms for Coca-Cola, Western Container installs a lid-placing cell that features a six-axis robot that reliably and accurately picks and places lids onto reusable totes.

The robot places lids on the containers of preforms at a speed of 45/hr.
The robot places lids on the containers of preforms at a speed of 45/hr.

Headquartered in Sugar Land, Tex., Western Container Corp. has been a manufacturer of blow-molded PET bottles and injection-molded PET preforms for the Coca-Cola bottling system since 1979. The company operates four manufacturing plants throughout the U.S.—in Tolleson, Ariz., Hattiesburg, Miss., Fife, Wash., and Houston—producing 6 billion units per year. 

Western Container Director of Engineering and Manufacturing Systems Darrel Smith, who handles capital procurement and machine design and installation for the company, is a strong advocate for automating processes within the plants. Shares Smith, every one of Western Container’s plants utilizes Laser Guided Vehicles (LGVs) as well as other robotic systems.


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While some of the desire to automate is a response to the always-tight labor market, it’s not the main reason, says Smith. “It’s the total cost of business that’s the driving force in putting in automation,” he explains. “It’s a more efficient, productive way to run the business.”

In early 2019, Western Container embarked on a project to add LGVs to its Hattiesburg plant. However, this meant one of its manual operations had to be automated to remove the operator from the path of the LGVs. The task involved placing lids on top of reusable plastic bins, from Orbis, that hold finished preforms, at speeds to 1,000 totes/day.

The reusable bins hold piles of PET preforms that in some cases need to be leveled before the lid can be placed.The reusable bins hold piles of PET preforms that in some cases need to be leveled before the lid can be placed.While Smith had worked with other robotics integrators in the past, he reached out to a more local operation, DePeuter Packaging Solutions (DPPS), in Houston, to provide guidance on automating the lid-placing process. Smith had several requirements for the system. One was that it needed to be able to meet speeds of 45 bins/hr. Next, it had to be able to handle the plastic lids, which weigh 12 lb and measure 40 x 48 in., as well as square them before placing them on top of the tote, without having to use complex vision systems. “The lids might be out of alignment on the stack—for example, a half an inch—so you’ve got to bring the lid to a zero point before you can put it on a bin,” Smith explains. “Otherwise, you’ll put it a half-inch out of skew on the load.”

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