CASI-IBOD: Collaborating to Define a Purpose-Built Solution

At AMH Material Handling, we design, build and maintain high performance Material Handling Systems to revolutionise the way our partners do business. Aiming to provide expert solutions that skyrocket performance and revolutionise productivity.

Recently, our team have collaborated with CASI and their UK and European Strategic Sales Partner, TM Robotics (Europe) Ltd, to offer a valuable and effective solution to a new customer. CASI are a leading provider of automation solutions for e-commerce and warehousing, based in the US - all engineering disciplines such as design, mechanical, electrical, controls, software, and applications are integrated under one roof. Our collaboration with CASI was significant in the success of the project; we speak with AMH Material Handling’s Strategic Development Director, Adrian Carter and Sales Coordination Manager, Kelly Allen who were involved in developing this process, to understand more.

Initial Discussions and Briefing

“Our brief was to create a solution that will store a certain volume of products within a dense storage solution, making that product available for goods to person picking operations. Our aim was simply to reduce the limit of touchpoints required to fulfil that challenge. We encountered a specific requirement to have stock cartons automatically de-lidded; this allows the open cartons to be placed into the AMR system as storage, making them ready to be picked from.”

“Through initial discussions surrounding our brief, our customer confirmed they would need both lidded, and de-lidded cartons to be distributed throughout their warehouse. Understanding this, we needed to generate a solution that streamlined both operations effectively, at once. CASI’s knowledge and expertise in automated systems meant that we could work together to select a fit-for-purpose solution; this was the Carton De-lidding Machinery Solution, the CASI I-BOD Single.”

Defining the Solution

“The I-BOD Single takes a closed carton and cutting a lid without damaging the product inside. This machine is specifically designed to automatically remove the top of cartons, allowing those cartons to be stored before being transported to a good to person pick station and have product directly presented. The process is that a carton will be fed into the machine, then a knife blade will travel around the carton in the cutting style required and then create a cut around the box. Factory acceptance testing was completed prior to delivery, to ensure all stakeholders were comfortable with performance and operational processes.”

“There are optional extras that have been included within this project, such as an Automatic Lid Removal and Automatic Blade Changing to improve efficiency; testament its orderliness, the Automatic Blade Changer operates at 450 cartons per hour and reduces 15 minutes off a shift, for what would otherwise be a manual process. As we had never come across a solution like this before, our team at AMH Material Handling were keen to investigate this further.”

Research 

“Our team conducted thorough research, where we able to confirm that this solution meets the needs of our customer, and that we were in fact able to exceed their expectations in revolutionising performance. The I-BOD Single has a rate of managing up to 550 boxes per hour in variation of 4 different types of the machine: Side Cut, Tab Cut, Tape Cut and Window Cut. Without the need to create a separate divert, this machine impressively allows both cartons that do and do not need cutting, to run through the machine seamlessly. Achieving over 250% productivity benefits against alternative operational methods.”

 Conclusion

“Partnering with CASI has transformed the solution we delivered to our client, with their goals at the centre of everything we did. The success of this project, and the positive feedback we've received, demonstrates the importance of setting clear objectives from the outset and maintaining strong communication throughout. By staying closely aligned with the client, we were able to create a streamlined, bespoke solution that significantly enhanced productivity and workflow efficiency.”

Contact us today to explore how we can collaborate to deliver highly efficient, service-driven material handling systems tailored to your business needs.