Corporate Buyers Guide

Palletizers are diverse in cost, capability and application. The traditional automatic palletizers that rely on mechanical arms to move material into the proper position are being replaced by robot palletizers. Every manufacturer of material goods uses pallets to store and transport product. Since all material goods are palletized (i.e. loaded onto pallets), there is a vast array of machines and accessories to accomplish the task.

Recent advances in robot technology are making robot palletizing more popular. The traditional automatic palletizer has improved with the increased use of PCs and AC drives. This simplifies some of the programming and improves reliability, but the automatic palletizer is still a complicated mechanical structure. It still serves its purpose in applications with few changes of product The robots for palletizing come in 5 and 6 axis robots for heavy loads and flexible applications. SCARA and gantry robots are 3 and 4 axis and are usually for very specific, limited flexibily requirements. The advantage of robots is the flexibility in applications. To change from one product to another requires a change in program, plus a change in the gripper (end effector) which holds the product. With a proper design of the end effector, the robot may be able to load two different products simultaneously.

 While this description highly favors robots, the traditional automatic palletzer will continue to play an important role in the packaging of many products. The reliability of the mechanical push rods and arms that guide products to their designed location are continuously improving. For certain, very high volume products, such as empty cans, the mechanical stacking system may continue to be desirable.

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Machine vibration monitoring starts when the rotary sections of a machine or process are installed. Correct balancing of the rotary components is critical for proper operation. After that, the continuous monitoring at bearing points assures early warning of maintenance before there is machine breakdown.

A vibration sensor signal is fed to a vibration analyzer at the start of operation to establish the reference signal. (no perfect balancing condition are possible). Thereafter, monitoring the signal continuously or at scheduled intervals allows to compare the ongoing signals to the reference signal. Understanding the wear pattern and corresponding signal of a rotary point allows for early warning if a point needs maintenance. Setting warning points, either automatic or manual warning, a breakdown can be prevented. All this can be set up as a preventive or even predictive maintenance program.