www.tmrobotics.co.uk In this application we see a Toshiba Machine SCARA industrial robot in use in a bread packaging application at Kuchenmeister Germany. Read on for more information about SCARA robots in the food industry. Cost effective, reliable and fast industrial robots in the food industry have been the key factor in what TM Robotics sees as the sector’s automation revolution. Just as the automotive sector became heavily automated in the 1970s, so the first decade of this century brought with it a scramble amongst food manufacturers to invest in the most efficient and future proofed industrial robots on the market. Amongst the best robot technologies for the food industry is the SCARA. SCARA stands for Selective Compliant Assembly Robot Arm or Selective Compliant Articulated Robot Arm — the two acronyms are both common and are entirely interchangeable. What are SCARA robots? This acronym is the key to understanding the advantages of a SCARA robot in the food industry. The first thing to recognise is the robot’s parallel-axis joint layout, which is compliant in the XY direction but rigid in the ‘Z’ direction, hence the term ‘Selective Compliant’. This offers enormous advantages in all sorts of primary and secondary packaging applications as well as a host of other pick and place functions. Secondly, the jointed, two-link arm layout is similar to a human arm, which is why the phrase ‘articulated’ forms part of the acronym. As a result, the robot can reach into …