Palletizing

The robot picks cases, bags, or totes off an infeed conveyor and places them on a pallet in a defined layer pattern. A single arm typically feeds one or two pallet build stations, with a pallet dispenser and a stretch wrapper usually sitting alongside the cell.

Payload ranges from 20 kg for single-case picks up to 800 kg for multi-pack grippers on heavy product, and reach in the 2000 to 3400 mm range covers a full pallet footprint. Dedicated palletizing arms like the M-410iC/185 and IRB 460 trade unnecessary axes for higher payload and speed at pallet height.

Vacuum, clamp, fork, and bag grippers each match a specific product family, and multi-pack tooling lets the robot pick several cases at once for higher throughput. Layer sheets, tier sheets, and slip sheets each add a step the tooling has to handle without a full changeover.

Dropped cases usually mean cup wear, marginal vacuum, or product that has soaked up moisture and lost seal quality. If layers start leaning, check the pattern file, the pallet position, and whether infeed cases are presenting square at consistent spacing.

Very tall or unstable stacks may need interleaved tier sheets or a stretch wrap step between layers. For mixed-SKU pallets built from a live order rather than a single run, pattern software gets much more complex than fixed pattern palletizing.

A common layout puts an M-410iC/185 or Kawasaki CP180L between a case infeed and a two-pallet build cell, with a pallet dispenser feeding empties. Layer patterns come from palletizing software instead of being taught point by point.

Time spent on the palletizing pattern and gripper tuning pays back across every pallet the cell builds. A pattern that runs fine at low speed can start dropping cases once the line hits full rate.