Palletizers

Compare PALLETIZER equipment that is diverse in cost, palletizing capability and application. Low and high level palletizers 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 favours 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.