“Anything that helps them out — eliminating repetitive tasks or a difficult job,” says Yakov Kochubievsky, a controls engineer for Founders Brewing, describing how the brewery is using robotics to alleviate the backbreaking work that employees would otherwise be tasked with.
Founders Brewing uses a FANUC R-2000iC/165F six-axis robot to handle kegs of beer, which weigh about 72 kg (about 160 pounds) when full. Kegs are filled with the valve facing down. Then they need to be flipped over and lifted from station to station for other processes before being placed on a pallet. At Founders, after a keg is filled, a robot takes over from there — picking it up with pneumatic grippers, flipping it upright so the valve is on top, and then taking it to have the valve sanitized and capped. The robot next takes the keg to be collared before placing it on a pallet. The process is repeated with other kegs until the pallet is filled and taken off to a refrigerated warehouse.
With this kind of continuous movement required of its robot, Founders needed a dresspack solution that would manage and protect the cables running from the robot to its end effector. The previous cable management system, a snake-like tube of interlocking plastic, was a flexible conduit that protected both the communication line and the air line for the pneumatic operation. Founders had just one key problem with this dresspack, but it was an untenable one.
“I don’t know if the tension was ever correct on that, but it had a tendency to get caught around one of the knuckles of the robot and then would get ripped out,” Kochubievsky says. “That would cause about three or four hours just of rewiring for our guys.”
The downtime caused by just one of these events would justify the cost of a new dresspack, so Founders began considering alternatives. BizLink Robotic Solutions already had a favorable reputation with a senior controls engineer at Founders. When an engineer at FANUC recommended a call to David McCain, a key account manager for BizLink who had been working with FANUC for 25 years, Kochubievsky realized that this was the dresspack supplier they were looking for.
A Dresspack You Can Set and Forget
The BizLink dresspack Founders chose is a material-handling J3-J6 cable management system with the LSH 3 retract system. As a compact and flexible solution, the retraction system reduces interference contours, thereby reducing the risk of collision with the robot. Resistant materials and components enable tight cable routing on the robot arm while also maximizing free space.
The dresspack has made all the difference for Founders Brewing. In operation since mid-2024, it has kept the robot running smoothly.
Kochubievsky says he now gives hardly any thought to the robot’s dresspack — which is just the way he likes it. “I’ve forgotten about it, which is a great thing,” he says. “The best compliment I can pay BizLink is that I’ve completely forgotten about them.”
Learn more about complete cable management systems from BizLink. For questions on BizLink dresspacks, contact our sales team at bus_sales(ät)bizlinktech.com.
