Robotic Palletiser
An Automated Palletising Solution for the Meat Industry
Benefits
- Reduces the risk of injury
- Creates labour-cost savings
- Increases production output
- Facilitates 24-hour production seven days a week
Background
Manual handling of boxed meat products within the Australian meat industry can result in significant occupational health and safety injuries every year. After processing and packing, boxed meat products can weigh upwards of 20kg. And, with each box requiring manual loading on to pallets before the forklift is engaged, risk of personnel injury in this sector is high.
The National Code of Practice: Manual Handling indicates that the risk of injury increases when "lifting weights above the range of 16-20 kg". The document also states that employers must ". eliminate any risks or,. control the risk and, if necessary, modify the design, provide mechanical aids for team lifting and ensure correct use of aids and training in manual handling techniques (clause 80(2))".
Robotic Palletiser
By utilising the latest in articulated armed robots, single robots are now able to intelligently pick and place multiple-sized boxes.
Palletising
Speeds reaching 120 cartons per minute can be achieved using a range of build scenarios. Palletising systems can also be built to enable palletising of products of irregular shapes and varying sizes.
Depalletising
Depalletising involves the unstacking and separation of fully formed pallets. The purpose is usually to unstack a homogeneous pallet to enable those products to be reformed into mixed pallets. In some situations, the depalletising robot is also the palletising robot.
Operation
- Boxes are accumulated for palletising at a central location via a conveyer transfer
- The robotic palletiser assembles the pallets according to pre-programmed instructions
- Slip sheets are inserted automatically
- Stacked pallets are shrink wrapped automatically
- Fully assembled pallets are conveyed by forklift in preparation for shipping or moving