ABB’s IRB 390 FlexPacker® industrial Delta robot for ultra-fast picking has been chosen for the Red Dot Product Design Award. This is the second ABB robot to receive the prestigious award in two consecutive years. 

“I am delighted the IRB 390 FlexPacker received this prestigious award,” said Marc Segura, President ABB Robotics.

“We collaborated closely with our customers and developed a robot that could respond to the demand for more shelf-ready packaged products. As a result, we developed an innovative solution that combined speed, payload, and dexterity to help our customers make their lines more flexible and able to handle the growth of low-volume, high-mix and higher-payload production. With its clean, simple and modern aesthetic, IRB 390 was designed to inspire confidence in users,” added Segura.

Ultra-Fast Picking

In particular, FlexPacker Delta robot was designed for ultra-fast, high payload picking, and efficient packaging of goods up to 15kg. During its development, particular focus was placed on shelf-ready packaging. This way, the products can be placed vertically, making it ideal for the food and beverage, pharmaceutical and consumer-packaging segments. Moreover, the robot is equipped with either four or five axes. Thus, the robot’s ‘tilting’ axis enhances its flexibility, making secondary packaging faster and more efficient.

The FlexPacker’s appearance reflects its level of functionality, with its white painted coating making it both aesthetically pleasing, but also easy to keep clean. It features very few horizontal surfaces and a simple, geometric shape that prevents the accumulation of debris. This design helps the robot maintain its operational speed and precision.

Third Red Dot Design Award

The global Red Dot Design Awards recognize achievements in product design, with the jury testing and evaluating thousands of entries every year. In 2022, the Red Dot Award panel looked for products that showed design quality and a high degree of innovation. Specifically, these are attributes that informed the FlexPacker’s development from the beginning.

The award reflects the importance of design in robotics as more automated solutions are rolled out to collaborate with humans and compliment skilled work to make production safer and more sustainable.

The FlexPacker boasts two new joints, offering greater freedom. The judges praised it for clean design, quality and innovation. The redesigned joints offer increased stiffness to withstand additional loads. They allow the FlexPacker to pick up more or heavier items, or use larger, more sophisticated grippers. It was the result of a radical redesign of the standard Delta robot’s parallel arms. Moreover, the joints are sealed, making them maintenance free for the lifetime of the robot.

The FlexPacker Delta Robot is the third ABB robot to win the Red Dot design award after GoFa^TM collaborative robot in 2021 and YuMi® dual-arm collaborative robot in 2011. The FlexPacker is the first industrial Delta robot to win the award. More importantly, it responds to the growing trend for pick and pack solutions, saving space by replacing two six axis robots with a single five axis unit.