Gentle gripper packs fresh herbs at a Danish greenhouse
Greenhouse grown herbs and potted mini plants · Packaging or case packing · Vendor published
This account comes from a robot maker, integrator, or their marketing partner. Treat every performance and payback figure as advertising until an engineer verifies it against your own job.
The job
Rosborg Food Holding of Odense, Denmark, the country's largest producer of herbs and mini plants, packs cut herbs for grocery distribution. A cobot cell now folds cardboard boxes and places cut herbs into them, work that previously drove overtime and temporary hiring in peak season.
The shop
About 130 employees and 120,000 square meters of greenhouse, published-by-vendor; annual output of 28 million herb plants and 12 million mini flowers, published-by-vendor.
The equipment
Universal Robots cobot (specific model not named in the case study) fitted with an OnRobot RG6 flexible gripper; box folding and packing station with touchscreen changeover between products.
The published numbers
Payload: the RG6 gripper is rated up to 6 kg, published-by-vendor as an equipment spec. Rate: packs per hour not published. Cost: cell cost not published; the company's broader 2013 modernization investment of 37 million Danish crowns is published-by-vendor but covers far more than this cell. Payback: not published.
Where a source did not publish a figure, this entry says so rather than guessing.
What we would check before believing it applies to you
The interesting choice here is the gripper: a wide, force limited electric gripper let a delicate, variable product be handled without custom tooling per SKU, and staff switch products from the pendant rather than calling an integrator. Produce and other soft goods shops should trial their actual product range in the gripper before buying, because stem length, bunching, and moisture change grip reliability in ways a demo hides. The published story is qualitative, with no rate or payback, so treat it as proof of feasibility rather than proof of economics. Seasonal peaks were the pain point, so model the cell against peak demand and ask whether it also earns its keep off peak. Wash down requirements and humidity in greenhouse adjacent packing areas deserve an explicit check against the robot and gripper ratings.
Sources
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Read the packaging and case packing guide