Robots speed up in-mould labelling process

New Zealand-based plastic manufacturer, Talbot Technologies, combines plastic thermoforming and injection moulding technologies to deliver a wide range of high quality products.

In the past, the company relied heavily on manual handling of products.

However, due to the rapid growth of the company production had to be streamlined.

Having tried a fixed rail robot for the complex in-mould labelling process with little success, Talbot Technologies realised that they needed a more versatile solution.

“We had looked at other robots, however the strong ROI combined with its reliability and versatility made the UR10 a more desirable value proposition for us,” says Steve Wilson, Executive Director of Talbot Technologies.



Talbot Technologies decided to try out two flexible, six-axis UR10 robots from Universal Robots, which were easily programmed to perform in-mould modelling, transfer moulding, and co-moulding tasks.

“The UR10s have enabled us to combine functions that previously occurred off-machine and on-machine and others which happen either prior to or post production, helping us streamline the process flow”, says Mr. Wilson and he adds: “We get exactly the output we want every time, which has provided a solid return on our investment within 12 months. We are planning on adding additional functions to what the robots currently do, which will make other downstream processes obsolete and provide further return as we go forward.”

For Steve Wilson, the biggest single reason for recommending Universal Robots is the size and flexibility of the unit. “They provide all the flexibility we require to perform complex tasks, moving between in-mould labelling, transfer moulding, and co-moulding efficiently and effectively.”

Universal Robots was co-founded in 2005 by the company’s CTO, Esben Østergaard, who wanted to make robot technology accessible to all by developing small, user-friendly, reasonably priced, flexible industrial robots that are safe to work with and on their own can be used to streamline processes in the industry.

The product portfolio includes the collaborative UR3, UR5 and UR10 robotic arms named after their payload in kilos.