OnRobot this week launched its OnRobot Palletizer, a collaborative palletizing system.
The Odense, Denmark-based company argued that the OnRobot Palletizer extends its application-first approach to collaborative automation by letting users choose a palletizing system that works for their specific application needs. This is thanks to its space-saving footprint and ability to handle different boxes, packages, patterns, pallets, and stacking heights.
“Small and midsized companies need palletizing automation that is easy to use, fast to deploy, and affordable – even if the application changes over time,” said Enrico Krog Iversen, CEO of OnRobot.
“OnRobot Palletizer combines fast deployment times with a small footprint and the best price point in the market – all using our application-focused approach that gives customers much more flexibility than traditional approaches,” he added. “OnRobot Palletizer can be deployed out-of-the-box and with minimal disruption to existing factory and warehouse layouts.”
Palletizer designed to work with different brands
Compatible with collaborative robots and light industrial robots from the Doosan, FANUC, OMRON, Techman, and Universal Robots brands, the OnRobot Palletizer is available as a complete out-of-the-box system or as individual components to create a mix-and-match solution.
The OnRobot Palletizer includes four new hardware and software products:
- OnRobot Palletizing is software that guides users through the entire deployment from start to finish via a single interface for all components. Once the physical hardware is in place and secured, the end user or integrator simply opens OnRobot Palletizing to receive step-by-step guidance through the process of setting up an application. Guidance is also available on the free Learn OnRobot e-learning platform.
- The OnRobot 2FGP20 is an electric gripper with a 20 kg (44 lb.) payload and customizable arms that can handle standard cardboard boxes as well as open boxes and shelf-ready products while also handling slip sheets without changing the gripper or requiring additional handling; no external air supply required.
- The OnRobot Lift100 is an elevator with a total payload of 100 kg (220 lb.) that provides a seventh axis for cobot and lightweight industrial robot brands; TÜV-certified stop-functionality facilitates safe and effective collaborative deployments; provides safe and precise positioning, even at high speeds.
- The OnRobot Pallet Station is a floor-mounted pallet fixtures designed to ensure consistent positioning; each comes with a built-in sensor for detecting pallet presence.
Manual palletizing is a labor intensive, repetitive, and “unergonomic” task, which makes it an ideal candidate for automation, the company argues. Palletizing automation increases productivity and throughput and improves quality and ergonomics.
An integrator’s take
OnRobot Palletizing software “significantly reduces the set-up time needed to have the application running,” said Adrián Pérez Martínez, co-founder and chief technology officer of Neobotik, an automation integrator based in Huelva, Spain, one of the sites where OnRobot Palletizer was tested prior to launch.
“It is so easy to install all the hardware and software when doing the initial setup of the cell,” he said. “And the graphical user interface makes it possible even for non-expert programmers to program a full palletizer solution.”
The OnRobot Palletizer has three main advantages over existing palletizing automation, according to Martínez.
“It’s fast to deploy. It has an easy-to-use programming interface,” Martínez said. “And the gripper weight is optimal, making the solution ideal for a wide range of collaborative palletizing applications, including in industries such as food and beverage, where there is a high flow of open boxes ready to be palletized and gripping the boxes using a traditional vacuum gripper is not possible.”
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