Palletizing Robot Roundup

Pal­letiz­ing a prod­uct can be one of the eas­i­est process steps to auto­mate in a pro­duc­tion line. Automat­ing this step not only keeps work­ers from hurt­ing their backs, but also can great­ly increase pro­duc­tion speed and elim­i­nate bot­tle­necks. There are many dif­fer­ent indus­tri­al robots avail­able for pal­letiz­ing these days, but the per­fect robot­ic pal­letiz­er must pos­sess cer­tain qual­i­ties. It should have excep­tion­al ver­ti­cal and hor­i­zon­tal reach, it should be stur­dy with high wrist iner­tia, and it should be fast and accurate.

Many indus­tri­al robot man­u­fac­tur­ers – includ­ing Fanuc, Yaskawa Motoman, ABB, and KUKA – have worked to per­fect their pal­letiz­ing robot mod­els and lines, design­ing their robots to per­form at top speed and qual­i­ty for their cus­tomers when pal­letiz­ing or de-pal­letiz­ing prod­ucts and parts. Robots​.com has a lot of expe­ri­ence inte­grat­ing pal­letiz­ing robot sys­tems. Here is an overview of some of the more pop­u­lar robot pal­letiz­ers available:

Fanuc – Slen­der and Powerful

The Fanuc robot­ic pal­letiz­ing line is quite impres­sive. Rang­ing in pay­loads from 100 kg up to an impres­sive 1200 kg, these robots pro­vide solu­tions for a vari­ety pal­letiz­ing needs. Slim arm design and heavy-duty com­po­nents allow Fanuc pal­letiz­ing robots to cut cycle times and increase throughput.

We rec­om­mend check­ing out the entire Fanuc R‑2000iA and R‑2000iB robot series. These are all great options for pal­letiz­ing oper­a­tions. One exam­ple, the R‑2000iB/​100H is a 5‑axis robot with a 100 kg pay­load capac­i­ty, while being remark­ably com­pact and slen­der. It is fast, with the abil­i­ty to pal­letize 20 cycles per minute when han­dling cas­es and 22 – 24 cycles per minute when pal­letiz­ing bags. The R2000iB/​100H is also capa­ble of pal­letiz­ing up to 81 inch­es when work­ing with a stan­dard 40×48 inch pal­let. The Fanuc R‑2000iB/​210F is also a pop­u­lar mod­el used for palletizing. 

Some oth­er rec­om­mend­ed Fanuc pal­letiz­ers include M‑410iB robots, M‑410iC robots, and M‑420iA robot. Fanuc also offers a very heavy pay­load M‑2000iA robot with a pay­load capac­i­ty of 1200 kg! Dual motor dri­ves in axes two and three allow this robot to per­form excep­tion­al­ly when work­ing with heavy work pieces.

Yaskawa Motoman – Quick and Compact

Motoman’s cur­rent pal­letiz­ing line, the Mas­ter Pal­letiz­ing (MPL) robot series, con­sists of six robots that range from 80 kg to 800 kg pay­load capac­i­ties. With quick speeds, a com­pact form and through-rout­ed cabling, the Motoman MPL pal­letiz­ers are designed to increase through­put. Their wrist move­ment of iner­tia are excep­tion­al, mak­ing them some of the stur­di­est robots in the industry.

One of the pal­letiz­ers in the MPL line, the MPL160, is an excep­tion­al mod­el that offers high reli­a­bil­i­ty, per­for­mance, and ease of use. This high­ly ver­sa­tile mod­el is ide­al for pal­letiz­ing a vari­ety of prod­ucts, while also hav­ing the abil­i­ty to per­form lay­er han­dling and pal­let han­dling func­tions. This MPL robot is able to use a con­ven­tion­al robot con­troller or a PLC controller.

On the small­er end of the line, the MPL80 is great for end-of-line pal­letiz­ing, espe­cial­ly when the fac­to­ry or lay­out require a small­er foot­print. The through­put cables on this and oth­er MPL robots cut down on wear and tear, sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduc­ing the amount nec­es­sary to main­tain the robot over its lifetime.

Oth­er rec­om­mend­ed Yaskawa Motoman pal­letiz­ing robots are the five-axis MPL100, MPL300, MPL500, and MPL800 robots.

ABB – High-Speed and Versatile

ABB also offers a vari­ety of pal­letiz­ing robots. These robots range from a pay­load capac­i­ty of 10 kg up to 500 kg and reach­es from 1650 mm to 3500 mm, giv­ing them a high lev­el of ver­sa­til­i­ty in the small, medi­um, and large pal­letiz­ing markets.

One of the lead­ing com­pact pal­letiz­ing robots from ABB is the IRB 460, a robot that is the fastest robot­ic pal­letiz­er in the world, accord­ing to ABB Robot­ics. This robot mod­el is capa­ble of up to 2190 cycles per hour, mak­ing it a per­fect end-of-line or bag pal­letiz­er, with a small foot­print for man­u­fac­tur­ers with lim­it­ed space.

Need a robot that can pal­letize heav­ier prod­ucts while still main­tain­ing high speeds? The IRB 760 from ABB may be the per­fect pal­letiz­er. This robot has the abil­i­ty to lift up to 450kg and can reach up to 3200mm, all with a wrist iner­tia dou­ble that of com­peti­tors, ABB states, which allows it to rotate heav­ier and larg­er prod­ucts faster than any oth­er robot.

Some of the oth­er rec­om­mend­ed, pop­u­lar ABB pal­letiz­ers include the IRB 660 robot and the IRB 7600 (which has 5 pay­load vari­a­tions) robots. 

KUKA – Light­weight and Flexible

KUKA has an exten­sive pal­letiz­ing line that offers more than 11 dif­fer­ent mod­els. Built with car­bon fiber com­pos­ite, these robot­ic pal­letiz­ers are fast and light­weight, while still remain­ing stur­dy and durable. KUKA’s PA robots range in pay­load from 40kg to 1300kg, and they come in dif­fer­ent axi­al con­fig­u­ra­tions, includ­ing one two-axis mode, the KR 50 PA.

At one end of KUKA’s pal­letiz­ing line is the 4‑axis KR 40 PA, which is capa­ble of high speeds, accu­ra­cy, and a ver­ti­cal reach of 1,600mm. The flex­i­bil­i­ty and dex­ter­i­ty of this mod­el, com­bined with its low­er pay­load capac­i­ty, makes it a use­ful indus­tri­al tool. Need to reach high­er? KUKA’s answer is the KR 100 PA and KR 180 PA. They can pal­letize as high as 3m.

At the oth­er end of the spec­trum are the KUKA Titan robots, the KR 1000 L950 titan PA and KR 1000 1300 titan PA, pro­vide extreme pay­load and reach abil­i­ties. These robot mod­els make mov­ing large work pieces eas­i­ly and stress-free.

If a man­u­fac­tur­er needs some­thing that falls between these two extremes, the KUKA KR 700 PA is a great choice. The KR 700 PA com­bines excep­tion­al speed with a rea­son­able pay­load. It is capa­ble of han­dling up to 15 cycles per minute when work­ing with typ­i­cal pal­letiz­ing dis­tances of 400÷2000÷400 mm.

Need Help Choos­ing The Right Pal­letiz­ing Robot?

We have over 35 years of expe­ri­ence inte­grat­ing robots used for pal­letiz­ing oper­a­tions. We help cus­tomers make edu­cat­ed deci­sions as to which robot brand and mod­el is right for their oper­a­tion and opti­mize pro­duc­tion flow. We have han­dled hun­dreds of pal­letiz­ers with dif­fer­ent end of arm tool­ing and grip­pers that are spe­cif­ic to the prod­uct it is han­dling. We also have New and Used pal­letiz­ing robot mod­els avail­able to pro­vide a larg­er afford­able selec­tion. Let us help you opti­mize your pro­duc­tion flow — Call us at 877−762−6881 or fill out our Con­tact Form and our experts will quick­ly respond.