Palletiser Installation Completed

An Essex-based company has invested in an automated palletiser to quicken its ability to fulfill orders.

Up until this year, palletising the bags was a manual process. However, due to the seasonal nature of fulfilling orders, the company has just a short window to process and distribute its products, making it a labour intensive task for the team.

As the customer is a seasonal producer, it was recommended installing a second user palletiser, which is half the cost of a new robotic palletiser. “I knew I wanted a robot from the get go but affordability was an issue. Our work is very seasonal and we didn’t want to employ extra people for the whole year just for the task of palletising” said company director. Once the robot was installed, we were able to have two men working around the robot and the bagging line as opposed to four.

The palletiser has also helped to reduce waste, which often occurred during the rush of manually palletising the bags. Previously the pace of the system was controlled by the operators manually palletising the bags, with natural pauses as they changed pallets and loaded more bags. It took three or four men on a 10 hour shift to palletise around 100 pallets.

Now the pace is controlled by the bagging line and robot, with the operator being able to change pallets and load bags onto the system without interrupting throughput. This means around 140 tonnes can be palletised in the same 10 shift period with just two workers manning the line.

A local packaging engineering solutions provider is able to provide this type solution to other companies to improve efficiency, reduce waste and utilize labour effectively. The team has over 25 years’ experience of providing conveyors, conveyor modifications, new and used machinery to the end of the line, and engineering support. They have formed alliances with key machinery manufactures to ensure its clients have access to cutting-edge technology for labelling, end of line and accumulation. The engineers provide OEE services, project managed installations and turnkey solutions to accredited standards of H&S, on time and in full.