In a robotic palletising system, products enter the palletising cell from an infeed conveyor. The robot is programmed to stack the products onto the pallet in a defined pattern as they enter.

Robotic palletising systems provide flexibility to palletise single or multiple production lines simultaneously. This dual adaption reduces costs while also increasing your productivity and manufacturing capacity. Palletising cells are sometimes configured with pallet dispensers, slip sheet insertion tools and shrink-wrapping stations to automate the palletisation process completely.

Palletising continues to be one of the fastest-growing robotic applications. Robots offer superior speed and safety, compared to manual palletising. There are also flexible and often more space-saving, compared to fixed machinery.

Certified food grade lubricants are standard on most of our palletising robots, making them applicable in a wide variety of industries and environments including food and beverage, warehouse and distribution, and industrial products.

Autoline is proud to represent multiple world-leading robotics brands in New Zealand that provide numerous options and systems for robotic palletising applications.

Yaskawa Motoman offers manufacturers a wide range of robotic solutions for palletising and depalletising. Yaskawa robotic palletizers are designed for speed, durability and cost-savings – enhanced by application-enabling software and vision capabilities to help you to tackle simple to complex palletising jobs. The palletising robots range from 50 kg to 800 kg payload with 4-6 axes of articulation. With this wide range of payload capacity, it’s your choice to pick single-case or an entire layer for stacking and breaking down pallet loads. All of Yaskawa palletizer robot models are compatible with the Yaskawa MLX package, allowing you to program them and run Yaskawa’s PalletSolver software directly from your PLC.

Doosan have a H Series range of collaborative robots which are the most heaviest payload cobot on the market. With an outstanding 25kg payload and 6 torque sensors, brings a safe work environment for a palletising application. The Doosan H Series Cobots are in a class of their own. Other cobot brands like Universal Robot do not have compatible specifications. The UR20 is Universal Robots’ newest model cobot and this has a 20kg payload and a 1700mm reach. This model is the heaviest payload available at Universal Robots. It still falls short of the Doosan H-Series 25kg payload capacity. Universal Robots has a lower payload and reach range. UR offers a range of 500mm to 1700mm, compared to the Doosan H Series 1500mm to 1700mm reach, the Doosan Cobots is a clear winner.

When deciding between industrial and collaborative robot palletisers and finding the right robotic automation system for your production line, there are four main characteristics to consider.

Number one is what is your required payload? Collaborative robots have lower payloads than industrial robots do.

Doosan has a heavy range of collaborative robots (cobots) which are called H-Series, these are the most powerful cobot in the market, with an outstanding payload of 25kgs. Yaskawa Motoman has a wide range of industrial robots with maximum payloads and reaches, therefore payload is not often a problem for industrial robot palletising. In summary, if you are trying to lift a payload that is greater than 25kgs, you would need to consider looking at an industrial robot palletiser solution rather than a collaborative one.

The next consideration is reach, how high do you need to stack your boxes on the pallet? The H Series models from Doosan have a reach of 1500mm and 1700mm which is outstanding flexibility for the powerful payload of 20kg and 25kg! Once your required reach is above the maximum reach for the collaborative robot arm, it may be difficult for a collaborative robot to meet your needs. In this case, industrial robots have larger reaches and would likely suit the application better.

The third consideration is what space do you have available on your production floor? A collaborative robot palletiser has a smaller footprint than an industrial robot palletiser system and takes up less physical space. Cobot palletisers also don’t require any guarding due to the industry’s best collision sensitivity powered by 6 torque force sensors, this allows humans to work alongside the collaborative robot safely. Whereas Industrial Robots require full safety guarding and sensing around the perimeter of the footprint to protect humans. It depends on the layout of your production line and floor space you have to determine whether an industrial robot or a collaborative robot would suit your palletising application best.

Industrial robots and collaborative robots have similar cycle times, the reason that industrial robots can handle such high volumes is due to their higher payload capacity. Depending on the weight you are trying to lift, industrial robots can lift a whole layer of boxes or bags in a cycle whereas typically a collaborative robot only lifts one box at a time.

In summary, we build a lot of collaborative robot palletising cells, cobot palletisers certainly have their benefits, now with their higher payload capacity and their ability to work alongside humans which increases production speed, ensures quality and gives flexibility.

We also build industrial robot palletising solutions too, in contrast, they offer greater speed and payload flexibility at the cost of a large footprint that requires physical safety guarding.

Making the decision between an industrial and collaborative palletiser is a difficult one, so if you need any assistance, please contact us to find out which palletising option is best for your company. Get in touch with our experts today!

A flexible palletising solution that delivers the reliability of an industrial palletising system

Optimise your end-of-line productivity by automating repetitive tasks with the Auto-CoPal, a cost-effective and flexible palletising solution. A collaborative robot palletiser combines a high payload cobot and our revolutionary palletising robot base to provide a flexible solution that will streamline your packaging process.

The Auto-CoPal is a configuration of reliable and proven technology with a Doosan Collaborative Robot and OnRobot End-of-Arm Tooling. Heavy-duty collaborative robot palletising is now possible with the Doosan H Series model cobots which have the heaviest payload available on the market, bringing a safe work environment for heavy object stacking and palletising.

The high payload cobot features a 25kg payload, this means the Auto-CoPal palletising system can handle heavy boxes that are considered a health and safety risk for humans to stack. With the flexibility to palletise single or multiple production lines simultaneously. This dual adaption reduces costs while also increasing your productivity and manufacturing capacity.

Palletising collaborative robots offer the ability to lift heavy payloads at a good speed, reducing cycle times, increasing the stacking rate of boxes, and achieving greater dynamic performance.