The graphic industry faces major challenges with respect to further automation and reduction of costs, specifically in finishing departments. The launch of IRA’s robotic solution, the IRA P-162 robot cell, represents an industry paradigm shift in addressing both challenges efficiently.

The IRA P-162 robot cell lifts various sizes and qualities of substrates (paper, board and plastic) from a freshly produced pallet out of a KBA Rapida 106-5+L to a vibration table of a highly automated Perfecta paper cutter line.

The IRA P-162 demonstrates revolutionary performance on several fronts:

• The IRA P-162 handles all substrate sizes from 46*64 cm to 120*162 cm with thicknesses from 0.08 to 0.6 mm (roughly 80 g/m²- 600 g/m²), and with stack weights of up to 20 kg. The cycle time depends on the selected moving program, airing and separation intensity. The fastest cycle time is around 15 seconds. The change over time between various substrate qualities and sizes takes only a few seconds by keying in the new information on the touch screen or retrieving the new data from the information file.

• The IRA P-162 manages up to six 115 cm pallets in size 70*100 cm or more than two 120*162 cm pallets per hour. Thus increasing the productivity of a normal paper cutter cell with one operator with 200-300% – 24 hours per day 365 days per year with only a few stops for maintenance;

• The IRA P-162 airs and separates stack held sheetsusing a variety of programs during the transportation from the pallet to the vibration table. Further, it can detect and remove waste sheets – subject to proper information on the pile. The IRA P-162 also removes the final waste sheets from the pallet and puts them into a waste bin.
  

• To prevent thin sheets from blowing off the top of the pile during transportation some printers place a heavy block on top. IRA P-162 detects and removes IRA’s proprietary protection blocks automatically.
  
  

IRA will introduce the P-162 robot cell during Drupa 2012 in Dusseldorf, Germany (May 3^rd to 16^th) at Toray’s stand D32 in Hall 16. The active robot can be viewed daily during Toray’s full offset on-demand demonstrations, which includes the KBA Rapida 106-5+L running a variety of different substrates printed with Toray’s waterless UV printing concept including the on-demand finishing on the automated Perfecta paper cutter line.