Robotic Palletising
With the introduction of new robot system technologies, the face of manufacturing is continually undergoing major changes. One area in particular where measurable savings are being seen is in the automated palletising of products of all shapes, sizes and weights.
This change in direction has been due to several factors. One of the main ones is due to the innovative designs that make up a new range of robot manipulators that enable such varying functions to be carried out.
Palletising
Palletising robots have been available for almost a decade. Such machines were targeted at the low to medium rate production lines where the robot picked and placed one to six standard cartons per cycle typically. In the last few years the flexibility, speed, payloads and reach of the robots has increased while the range of functionality a gripper now has allows a single robot to service varying size and shape product over many lines simultaneously if required.
A palletising robot system can provide a flexible upgradable and low maintenance alternative to conventiaonal palletising technology. Utilising the latest robots from ABB or KUKA, a customised solution designed around your operation that incorporates one robot bag palletiser can start from a relatively low price. Such a system can achieve palletising speeds of around 500 bags per hour, while a high capacity systems is capable of handling over 900 bags per hour.
Design Principle
The aim of any palletising system is to fully automate the handling of product – whether it be boxes, bags or other product, the manipulation of empty and full pallets including the insertion of the layer sheets, as well as the final shrinkwrapping prior to transportation if required.
For a standard palletising operation working with boxes standard grippers are available that enables the robot to pick and place several products per cycle. For more complex solutions that involve non-standard shapes, sizes and weights customised grippers may be required
In a standard palletising solution the robot builds pallet formations of 8 products per layer which are stacked 8 layers high – although any formats can be accomodated for.
A typcial standard scenario can see palletising rates of up to 800-900 products per hour achieved. When designing the system, sample products, product specifications and time trials with the gripper system are required for accurate rates to be calculated.
The System at Work
A robot will commence operations by transferring one empty pallet to the palletising position. Once the new pallet has been located the robot will then transfer the pallet bottom layer sheet onto the pallet at the palletising position.
Palletising operations commence as soon as an empty pallet with a layer sheet is available and new products are available at the product infeed conveyor.
Sensors are used to check that boxes are available and in the correct position at the product infeed conveyor.
When the products are in position a stop gate prevents additional boxes from entering the final pick off positions. The robot then moves to the product infeed conveyor to pickup the box/es and raise them off the conveyor.
Once the system has confirmed that the boxes are held securely, and that no boxes remain on the product infeed conveyor the boxes are palletised in the required configuration until the pallet is complete.
Completed pallets are then transferred away from the loading station to a two pallet accumulation conveyor.
The palletising area is enclosed with safety fencing and muted light curtains are installed enabling only pallets to be transferred in and out. The safety system then would sense if any other entry occurs instructing the robot system to immediately stop.
Once the completed pallet is transferred out of the cell, a forklift can be used move the completed pallets.
New pallets are then transferred via the robot to the palletising station and the cycle will continue until halted by the operator or whilst waiting for new product to become available.
Full pallets can be unloaded during the cell operation without the requirement of stopping the system
Why Automate
In most cases a robot palletiser provides a better alternative to manual palletising technology due to many factors including:
Reduced OH&S
Increased output
24 hour by 7 day operation
Automated monitoring of operations
Safer working environment
Less damage due to smoother bag handling
Flexibility to handle a large range of products
Adaptable to new products
Reliability - Mean Time Between Failure on any robot component 60,000 hours
Measurable ROI within 2 years
MAR design and build enginneer complete packing solutions based on your situation and requirements. An automation expert will work with you to identify the best solution for you taking into account the type of bag you wish to palletise, the product in the bag, nature of your application and the range of bag sizes you need to palletise.
With 20 years robotic experience, MAR Automation are experts in providing total end-of-line automation solutions to the food and non-food industries. We offer a complete service, from design and manufacture, project management through to implementation and ongoing support.
Machinery Automation & Robotics
1/101 Derby Street
Silverwater NSW 2128
Phone: (61) 2 9748 7001
http://www.machineryautomation.com.au