Shown: the system in operation (video still)A Robotic Palletizer That Paid for Itself in Under a Year
Two robotic palletizing lines replaced hand stacking at an appliance distribution center, cut palletizing labor by more than 70% and raised output to 1,440 boxes an hour.
A household appliance manufacturer palletized every product by hand at its distribution center. Workers unloaded trailers, sorted boxes, stacked pallets up to 9 feet high and wrapped them, guessing at the best pattern for each box size.
Han-Tek built two robotic palletizing lines. Workers now place boxes on an infeed conveyor, and the robot builds each pallet in a programmed pattern before an automatic stretch wrapper seals it. Palletizing labor dropped more than 70%, output rose to 1,440 boxes an hour, and the system paid for itself in under 12 months.
Every box stacked by hand, and a 12-month payback rule
Boxed vacuums and other appliances arrived by trailer and left by truck for retailers. In between, people did all the handling: unloading, sorting by product, stacking, wrapping and moving pallets by forklift.
Guesswork patterns
With box sizes all over the map, workers decided how to stack each pallet. Mistakes were common and the work was slow.
Hard, repetitive work
Stacking boxes up to 9 feet high meant constant lifting and reaching, and trained workers were hard to keep.
Pay back in a year
A corporate rule required any new system to pay for itself within 12 months.
The goal: less labor, more boxes per hour and less product damage, with payback inside a year.
From trailer to wrapped pallet, with one robot per line
Han-Tek designed, built and installed two robotic palletizing cells, working with a Rockwell Automation distributor on the controls. Here is how a pallet gets built.
- 1
Pick the product
At the operator screen, the operator selects the product and the system loads its box size and pallet pattern.
- 2
Robot builds the pallet
Boxes feed to a staging table. The robot lays a slip sheet on an empty pallet, then uses a vacuum gripper to stack the boxes in the programmed pattern.
- 3
Wrap and go
An outfeed conveyor carries the full pallet to an automatic stretch wrapper, ready for a forklift to take to storage.
- Vacuum gripper: picks one or several boxes at a time from the staging table.
- Automatic pallets: a pallet dispenser feeds empty pallets into the cell, and the robot places a slip sheet for a flat base.
- Size check: a light curtain checks every box against the product being run and sends any odd box aside without stopping the line.
- Mistake stops: fault codes stop the line if the robot misses a box or picks an extra one.
- Manual backup: a diverter sends boxes to hand packing for one-off sizes, maintenance or a power outage.
More boxes with far fewer people, paid back in under a year
| Area | Before: manual | After: robotic |
|---|---|---|
| Palletizing labor | All by hand | More than 70% less |
| Boxes per hour | About 1,010 | 1,440 on two lines |
| Pallet patterns | Worker judgment | Chosen from 150 on file |
| Wrapping | By hand | Automatic stretch wrapper |
| Payback | Required within 12 months | Under 12 months on labor savings alone |
- Labor down more than 70%: workers were moved to other areas of the facility.
- Faster: 1,440 boxes an hour on two lines, up from an average of about 1,010, with no loss in pallet quality.
- Safer jobs: the redesigned work removed most of the heavy, repetitive lifting.
- Easy to grow: a new product can be entered and test-run on the line within an hour.
- Visible anywhere: the PLCs share data over Ethernet, so managers can check the system from any networked PC.
Questions about robotic case palletizing
Can one robotic palletizer handle many box sizes?
Yes. This system handles up to 50 products with 150 pallet patterns on file. The operator picks the product and the robot uses the matching pattern.
How hard is it to add a new product?
Here, the operator enters the new box's specifications and can test-run it on the line within an hour.
What happens if a wrong box comes down the line?
A light curtain checks each box's size and sends any box that does not match aside, without stopping the line.
How fast can a robotic palletizer pay back?
It depends on labor and volume. This system paid for itself in under 12 months through labor savings alone.
More end-of-line and distribution projects
Let a robot build them.
Tell us your box sizes, product count and the rate you need. A Han-Tek engineer will tell you what a robotic palletizer could do.
"*" indicates required fields