Palletizing cartons, cases, and boxes can present challenges to any operation, but in particular to a manual operation. It's manual, draining work that adds little value. Ergonomically, the bending, straining, and pushing is particularly damaging. Robotic carton palletizing systems are not only safer - they're faster and more economical in the long run.
Our robotic systems can work with multiple incoming and outgoing conveyor lines, integrated into robotic cells that increase throughput and reduce operational costs. You can palletize mixed loads or single carton types. With a variety of tooling options, vision systems, and expert engineering, we can help you build exactly the system you need.
Palletizing has been a standard application for industrial robots for decades. But robotic mixed-load palletizing only achieved some success in the recent years. It is fundamentally a different application from uniform palletizing - essentially a 3-D Tetris game. It requires advanced planning that considers box dimensions and weight distribution. It requires an end-of-arm tool that can both grip boxes of varying sizes and release them in 3-D corners without interference.
Challenging as it is, mixed-load palletizing can set your operation apart. Shipping centers that directly ship to individual customers can particularly benefit from mixed-load palletizing. Mixed-load palletizing needs to be automated by robots since there are few other types of machinery that can emulate robots' mechanical flexibility.
The process is utilized at retail distribution centers, catalog fulfillment operations, food and beverage companies, and many others.