Standard Robotic Palletizing Cell
Project summary
MWES provided this firm with a fast and efficient robotic palletizing cell as part of a larger production line.
The Challenge
This firm was struggling to find enough workers to run its palletizing operation. The shortage hampered their overall throughput as they had to redirect workers away from more important tasks to fill in. To keep its throughput consistent with its competition, the automation system had to accommodate multiple sizes and pallet patterns of corrugated boxes with one robotic automation system.
The Solution
MWES built a fully automated custom robotic palletizing cell, that’s equipped with a PD1000 automated pallet dispenser. The cases enter the cell via an infeed conveyor and a separate outfeed conveyor supplies the empty pallets. The robot is equipped with a dynamic vacuum end-of-arm tool (EOAT) that can pick up more than one case at a time. The robot places the cases on the pallet based on the pallet pattern required for the case size using a PalletPRO palletizing solution.
The pallet dispenser ejects a pallet out the bottom and onto the outfeed pallet. Once the pallet arrives at the staging area, the robot picks a slip sheet with the vacuum EOAT from the slip sheet storage rack and places it on the empty pallet. It repeats this process for every complete layer on the pallet. As cases stagger into the cell on the infeed conveyor at the end of the conveyor is a buffer area where two rows of four cases are formed by an activated roller belt (ARB) on the conveyor. Once a full row is created the robot picks the entire row up at once with its vacuum gripper.
The robot places the cases on the pallet in accordance with the predetermined pallet patterns and makes adjustments to the placement on the fly. Once a pallet is complete a robot-integrated automatic stretch wrapping system completes the palletizing process and the pallet index out of the cell on the conveyor.
Impact to the Customer
The robotic automation system MWES provided our customer would palletize more than 80 cases per minute, while handling different case sizes and pallet patterns, without any tooling changeovers. This afforded them a system that required a single operator to supervise and allowed them to keep their other workers on more important tasks.
Midwest Engineered Systems has a wide range of experience in building robotically automated palletizing systems. If you’re looking to improve your palletizing throughput, we have the knowledge and experience to make the project a success.
Contact us to learn about how Midwest Engineered Systems can automate even your most complex and challenging operations today!
Innovation Through Automation
Client Details
A multi-national manufacturer of household cleaning supplies and other consumer-grade chemicals.