A novel piece of equipment has been installed in Flowcrete’s Swedish manufacturing facility after the Company President laid down a challenge to use robotics to boost the plant’s productivity.

Nicknamed ‘Kevin’ by the Flowcrete Sweden team, the machine now picks up large base units of resin from the end of the factory line and deftly places them onto pallets.

These plastic and steel pails would be much too heavy for a person to lift, but Kevin can continue to package products for several shifts a day, 6 days a week.

Mark Greaves, the President of Flowcrete Group, devised the plan to optimise the manufacturing process by utilising existing factory automation technologies in an innovative manner.

Mr Greaves said: Our manufacturing plant in Sweden is now able to process and pack material at a faster rate than ever before. The next step is to install an automated pallet wrapper for Kevin to place the pails onto so that the finished pallet can be taken directly to the warehouse or to despatch."

Kevin is the latest addition to this production line, which has seen several other upgrades during 2014 to enhance the automated filling and lidding process.