What flashes, turns on its axis and loads a pallet of cookie tins onto its forks?

Empty tin cans ride a roller coaster. Shiny silver sheet metal parts are pulled through the spacious factory hall on seemingly endless conveyor belts. In between, fully automated machines work on the details: printing, punching lids, forming thin metal sheets, welding. There is a constant knocking, hissing, pounding and humming until the finished products are arranged on pallets. "A can looks very simple in itself, but it's a technically highly complex everyday object," says Christophe Marteau, CTO at Massilly and responsible for technology and development.

The company has been consciously focusing on automation for years. "In order to set ourselves apart from the competition from emerging markets, we don't have unlimited options." Quality is one option. Another is to make production as lean and interlocking as possible. "Automation may not create new jobs," he concedes, "but it safeguards the ones that are already there." A factory that doesn't invest in innovation will disappear sooner or later, says Marteau, stopping a few steps away from a packing station.

After palletizing, the Linde L-Matic is ready for action

Flexibility in production is very important for Massilly. That's why those responsible opted for high lift trucks from the Linde robotics range. Photo: Linde Material Handling

A palletizing machine picks up boxes of finished products and assembles the pallets. Next door, an automated pallet truck is waiting for its turn. In addition to the usual standard equipment, this device has a navigation laser, safety sensors, a computer unit, a touchscreen and a blue spot. As soon as the robot arm has completed a pallet, the Linde L-MATIC automatically clears the exit of the palletizing machine, picks up the pallet and places it a few meters away on an automatic film wrapping machine. This is followed by a similar process: From the film wrapping machine, the L-MATIC picks up the pallet again and moves it to the entrance of the high-bay warehouse. Only here does the human intervene again. Forklift drivers take over the pallets and store them.

Autonomous high lift trucks orient themselves independently

"Couldn't the route between the packing station and the warehouse simply have been bridged with a conveyor belt?" Marteau shakes his head: "We could have - but then important routes would have been blocked! The Linde robotics devices give us complete flexibility. The routes can be adapted at any time." Thanks to geo-navigation from the French robotics specialist Balyo, the autonomously moving pallet trucks can orient themselves independently in space. They do not need laser reflectors, rails, magnets or other aids. Instead, they use local features such as walls, shelves or pillars as reference points to find their way around. "The vehicle knows the layout of the factory and reacts in real time if, for example, an employee crosses the lane," explains Marteau.

"The Linde robotics devices give us full flexibility. The routes can be adapted at any time."

Christophe Marteau, CTO at Massilly

Automated processes have long since become part of everyday life at Massilly. Two workers are standing at the other end of the factory hall at a second loading station. A Linde L-MATIC high-platform truck of the latest generation starts to move, flashes, makes a turn, rotates on its own axis and loads a pallet of colorful cookie tins onto its forks. The two warehouse employees watch the process carefully.

Sometimes the paths of robotic devices and employees cross. Safety is ensured by the technical equipment of the vehicles with lasers and/or cameras, safety scanners, computing units and digitized maps. photo: Linde Material Handling

"We have just made a correction to the film stretching machine. The operators are currently checking whether everything is running smoothly again," explains Marteau. The first two automated pallet trucks were put into operation in 2012. Two new L-MATIC devices were added to the fleet in spring 2016.

The first step was to increase productivity in the face of rapidly growing order numbers. In 2011, Massilly produced one and a half billion tin lids; three years later, the figure was already approaching the two billion mark. Marteau recognized the innovative potential of the automated devices and was determined to exploit it: "It was an investment in the future," he emphasizes.

A robot stacker does not misjudge

From today's perspective, operations run more smoothly and the number of accidents has decreased significantly. "Man-operated devices constantly require full concentration when starting up, maneuvering or estimating speed - and if a pallet falls, all the boxes have to be unpacked and all the lids checked again individually. This costs valuable time. The robot, on the other hand, never makes a mistake," says the head of technology. Interested parties from all over the world come to Massilly in Cluny to see the solution and ask Marteau about his experiences. The robotic devices perform many standard tasks that can be transferred to other areas.

David Frogier de Ponlevoy

French hidden champion

Massilly's main plant is located in the heart of the Mâconnais, a fertile, hilly landscape surrounded by forests and vineyards. The company is the market leader in France in the field of sheet metal lid production and is ranked third internationally. Massilly is a "hidden champion" in the truest sense of the word. From the Italian pasta market leader to the specialist for industrial coatings, numerous branded goods manufacturers rely on the French company for their packaging.