Special product palletizing
Palletizing complex or hard-to-handle products: drums, bales, trays, pails and packs
Some products are neither a box nor a bag and still have to be palletized: drums that nest inside one another, bales that will not hold their shape, trays, shrink-wrapped packs, paint pails, jerrycans. If you have a difficult palletizing job and you do not know whether it can be automated with a palletizing robot, this is your page. Tell us what the product is and we will tell you straight whether it is viable and how we would solve it.
10–14 units/min
Typical throughput on special products. Higher output subject to study.
Up to 350 kg
The heaviest single piece we have palletized.
500 kg per layer
Complete layer; more if the project uses an 800 kg robot. No hard limit: decided per project.
Over 2,500 mm
Stacking height when the project calls for it.
What we palletize that others leave out
We palletize difficult product, not just boxes and bags:
The most common are trays, shrink-wrapped packs, bales and paint pails. The most demanding, by a wide margin, are loosely packed bales: if they have no stable shape, the pallet will not have one either.
Your product not on the list? Ask us. Almost anything that is palletized by hand can be palletized by a robot; and if yours cannot, we will say so.
For boxes and bags there are dedicated pages: box palletizing and bag palletizing.
The gripper does half the work
Whether a difficult product can be palletized or not almost always comes down to the gripper. This is what we use, by product:
| Product | Gripper |
|---|---|
| Bales | Bottom comb |
| Shrink-wrapped packs | Bottom comb |
| Paint pails | Vacuum + bottom comb |
| Drums and barrels | Special grippers |
| Jerrycans | Special grippers |
| Unpacked product | Special grippers |
| Trays | Mechanical grippers |
| Rolls | Mechanical gripper |
One gripper can serve several products — the bottom comb, for instance, works for bales, shrink-wrapped packs and, with vacuum, paint pails. When the products are very different from one another (bags and boxes, bales and boxes, pails and shrink packs) the normal answer is to change gripper; on the odd special project a combined gripper is designed, but that is the exception, not the rule.
Real cases
Steel drums (Rheem, Chile)
20 kg steel drums, at 18 per minute, nested one inside another and stacked above 2,500 mm, with glued protective slip sheets placed between layers. And the reverse process, depalletizing, solved the same way.
Pharmaceutical cleanroom (Merck, Spain)
25 bottles per minute of stem cell culture, placed into trolleys and loaded into an automated warehouse. Unpacked product, cleanroom environment.
Explosive components
Palletizing bags of explosive components, with the safety measures that type of product requires.
Robot with a protective cover for environments with dust or aggressive product, and stainless steel conveyors.
When it is not worth it
We would rather tell you up front than sell you a cell you will never pay off. It is not worth it when:
- The product is deformable or has no stability on the pallet. What cannot be palletized by hand almost certainly cannot be palletized automatically either.
- You need to mix different products on the same pallet. That is very difficult — it would be a project to study, with a lot of limitations.
- Output is so low that the investment has no return.
- The line requires an operator to be present at all times — unless the reason for automating is ergonomic.
When it is not worth it, we look for a simpler solution. And if the project cannot be automated, we say so: pressing on for the sake of pressing on would be a mistake for both of us.
If what you need is to move loose parts without building a pallet, that is a machine tending robot.
Frequently asked questions about palletizing difficult products
Which difficult products can you palletize?
Bales, drums and barrels, jerrycans, trays, shrink-wrapped packs, paint pails, tubs, casks, rolls and unpacked product on the pallet. If your product is not on the list, ask us: almost anything palletized by hand can be palletized by a robot.
Can you mix different products on the same pallet (mixed load)?
It is very difficult. It would be a project to study, with a lot of limitations — not a standard service. Tell us your case and we will say whether it is viable, but it is not the usual answer.
Which gripper is used for each product?
It depends on the product: bottom comb for bales, packs and pails (with vacuum); special grippers for drums, jerrycans and unpacked product; mechanical grippers for trays and rolls. One gripper can serve several products; if they are very different, it is changed.
What throughput do you reach on special product?
Between 10 and 14 units per minute as a rule. Higher output is studied case by case.
How much weight can you palletize?
Up to around 350 kg per piece, and complete layers of 500 kg — more if the project uses a robot with 800 kg of payload. There is no hard limit: it is decided per project.
Palletizing robots
Featured videos
BOX AND TRAY PALLETIZING ROBOT
HIGH-SPEED BOX PALLETIZING ROBOT
SPECIAL PALLETIZING ROBOT
SHRINK-WRAPPED PACK PALLETIZING ROBOT
HIGH-OUTPUT BAG PALLETIZING ROBOT
Got a difficult palletizing job? Tell us what the product is, what it weighs and what throughput you run at, and we will tell you whether this is your solution.