Columbia/Okura celebrates 1000th palletizing system

Columbia/Okura recently marked the milestone of shipping its 1,000th robotic palletizer.

The company has designed and commissioned many successful palletizing systems, handling a massive range of products across dozens of industries worldwide. From bag palletizing systems in abusive and
harsh environments to high-speed, multi-robot, multi-picking case applications, Columbia/Okura has handled almost any type of product packaging, the company stated.

To celebrate the occasion and thank employees for their hard work, Columbia/Okura supplied lunch from Smokin’ Oak, a local barbeque restaurant in Vancouver, WA. Over the past 26 years, the team has gathered for every one-hundred robot sold milestone, celebrating with lunch and a team photo with the robot. However, due to COVID-19, in-person celebrations have been canceled for the last milestones–900th systems sold–making this in-person celebration of 1,000 robots even better, the company explained.

The 1,000th system will be sent to a customer in North Carolina, Cherry Farms Seed Co., with a unique crest on the arm to denote it as the 1,000th robot. The system includes the Ai1800 robot, sheet presenter, pallet dispenser, bag end-effector, bag infeed, station conveyor, and a gravity pickup conveyor.