Dual-Process Case Palletizer
Royal Ridge Fruits, a repeat customer, was looking for a robotic palletizing system that could palletize multiple box sizes from an infeed to multiple place positions, and depalletize, print barcodes and repalletize cases in the background while it was waiting for boxes on the infeed. This was a unique case palletizing cell packed with capabilities.
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The palletizing system consists of a Fanuc M-410iC/185 Robot with a custom designed end of arm tool (EOAT). The EOAT consists of a 3D vision system and pallet, slipsheet, and multiple box size handling capabilities. The system also consists of an infeed conveyor, 4 pallet place positions, VideoJet printer, pallet and slipsheet corrals, and the necessary control systems.
The Two Process Palletizer is capable of performing two processes simultaneously. When palletizing from the infeed, boxes of dry fruit are conveyed from the metal detector upstream to the pick position in the robot cell. The robot will pick and place a pallet and slipsheet on the enabled pallet station(s) then palletize these boxes on the station(s).
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The operator has the option to select barcode printing for palletizing off the infeed, which will cause the robot to bring each box off the infeed over to the Videojet printer, print a barcode, and place the box on the pallet.
When depalletizing, an operator will place a full or partial pallet that they wish to have depalletized in pallet station 3. An operator will then place an empty pallet in station 4. The operator enters the correct recipe, layer/unit of the stack to be depalletized, and the pallet type at each station. The robot will place a slipsheet on pallet station 4 then begin the depal process. The robot takes a picture of the box it is expecting to pick with the Fanuc 3DL camera/laser. The robot determines the exact positioning of the box from the camera snap. The robot then picks the box, and if barcode printing is turned on, will bring the box to the Videojet printer, which will print the barcode selected on the recipe screen. The robot will then place the box on pallet station 4 and repeat until the pallet in station 3 is empty. The depal/repal process can be used to change pallet types on an existing stack or print a barcode on each box in an existing stack.