Palletizing Robot Roundup

May 2, 2018

Palletizing systems will greatly benefit from the integration of an automation system. Robotic palletizers have amazing vertical and horizontal reaches, sturdy wrist intertia, fast speeds, and undeniable accuracy. Fanuc, Yaskawa Motoman, ABB, and KUKA have a wide range of palletizing robots available that provide enhance production lines so contact Robots.com experts today to see which one would be best for your line.

Palletizing Robot With Bag Gripper

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 8777626881 or fill out our Con­tact Form and our experts will quick­ly respond. 

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