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U.S. molders have an opportunity at NPE to acquaint themselves with , an important Italian robot producer. Campetella is a family-owned firm that has been dedicated to automation (starting in agriculture) for over 120 years. It is represented in North America by Hunter Automation & Robotics, which was formed for that purpose in 2014. Campetella offers a full line of top-entry and side-entry, all-servo linear robots with three or five axes, and servo sprue pickers, for machines from 30 to 5000 tons.

Its robots are said to be very quiet, greaseless, and low-vibration, as well as universal—their modular design can be switched from operator side to non-operator side or T-beam mounting in 2 hr, unlike the majority of models on the market, the company claims. They also can be moved easily from machine to machine. In addition, these robots are compact: A side-entry model reportedly takes up the same space as a top-entry model from other suppliers.

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Prices are said to be competitive with other brands, but Campetella models are described as “fully loaded” with features that are normally options. The company notes that its servo systems use about 10% less energy by recovering kinetic energy during braking of each axis.

Campetella specializes in IML with high-speed, side-entry robots. In Europe, it has collaborated in IML projects with machine suppliers such as Arburg, Engel, KraussMaffei, , Toyo, and others. It has supplied a complete lights-out IML system in Italy for 5700 food trays/hr, molded on a 550-ton press in 5 sec, with secondary automation for checking label position, barcode verification, and stacking in boxes with protective PE film.

At NPE, Campetella provides the Maxi Modula side-entry robot for an IML demonstration that is expected to catch the attention of bucket and pail molders: At the KraussMaffei booth, a two-platen GX press of 900 m.t. molds two 5-gal paint pails in under 14 sec. Until now, these buckets have mostly been printed.

Campetella has its own booth with an Engel machine molding four airline cups in well under 3 sec. An SM2 side-entry robot with servo wrist and vision capability demolds the parts. Also on display is the new Spin X-Series four-axis SCARA robot for stacking parts. It comes with payload capacity up to 50 kg (110 lb) and vertical z-axis up to 3300 mm.

There are Campetella robots at two other booths: JSW uses a new X-Series Gunshot ultra-high-speed top-entry model to demold two food containers with lids in under 3 sec. And Maruka is showing a Toyo press molding decorative flowerpots in four cavities (two pots and two bases) with an X-Series MC-2 HS high-speed top-entry robot.