Methods to Select the Proper Pallet Conveyor in 10 Steps

Pallet conveyors are a elementary element in materials dealing with and finish of line operations. Choosing the proper conveyor can have a direct affect on transport occasions, facility format, and total productiveness.

The suitable pallet conveyor can cut back wasteful guide labor steps, optimize your area, and even open the doorways to automated palletizing options. Nonetheless, the fallacious alternative may result in increased prices, wasteful inefficiencies, and stock bottlenecks .

That will help you keep away from these pitfalls, this information walks you thru the ten important steps for choosing the right conveyor to your palletizing.

Laying the Groundwork for an Improved Palletizing Course of

Choosing the fitting conveyor is greater than only a sensible buying resolution. It may be a strategic transfer to boost your materials dealing with course of.

If you’re utilizing guide palletizing — the place employees stack pallets with merchandise — the fitting conveyor may also help to scale back harmful ergonomic points that may result in bodily damage and even affect worker psychological well being.

Ryan Weaver, VP of Industrial at Robotiq, explains:
“Palletizing is likely one of the most labor-intensive duties within the manufacturing and transport course of. The excessive danger of damage from repeatedly selecting and stacking heavy bins makes it a danger for the corporate. Moreover, the boring and repetitive nature of the duty means it is exhausting to search out and retain employees prepared to do the job.”

If you’re utilizing automated palletizing, there are lots of further advantages. The suitable conveyor may also help to optimize your automated course of to create a seamless, environment friendly workflow. When mixed with robotic palletizing, the conveyor kinds a system that helps cut back widespread pallet issues like loading inefficiency, misalignment, product harm, and inconsistent pallet high quality.

Whether or not you’re utilizing guide or automated palletizing, the conveyor lays the groundwork for an environment friendly and scalable palletizing course of.

10 Steps to Select the Proper Pallet Conveyor

Selecting your perfect pallet conveyor requires a transparent understanding of your operational wants, future targets, and constraints that have an effect on the deployment.
Listed here are 10 steps that will help you make clear which pallet conveyor will meet each your present and future imaginative and prescient to your finish of line:

Step 1: Determine on Automated or Guide Palletizing

First, you have to determine if you’ll use a guide palletizing course of or an automatic one. This could radically have an effect on the selection of conveyor. If you have not thought of automating your palletizing course of earlier than, now is an efficient time to consider it.

Guide palletizing is a viable possibility for small-scale operations with rare packaging calls for or funds constraints. On this case, you’ll search for conveyors that improve guide palletizing.

Automated palletizing provides vital benefits, together with higher packing consistency, enhanced office security, and room for scalable development. Robotic palletizing has turn into a robust strategic transfer for a lot of firms within the final 5 years.

Step 2: Map Your Current Course of First

Earlier than deciding on a conveyor, take time to map out your present guide course of. It is a key step within the Lean Robotics Framework that we at all times recommend earlier than folks add new know-how.

Robotiq’s Utility Professional Marc-Antoine Lacasse explains the significance of this step in our free palletizing eLearning course:

“Guide activity mapping is step one to actually perceive the applying nicely. Ask questions like: What’s the subsequent step within the manufacturing line? How does the pallet go away the cell? Take the time to finish your entire course of and notice which duties had been value-added and which had been downtimes.”

To assist with this, obtain our free guide activity map template.

Step 3: Determine on Centralized or Decentralized Palletizing

You need to then take a step again and take a look at how your palletizing cell suits within the total stream of your whole facility. Particularly, determine in case you are utilizing centralized or decentralized palletizing.

Centralized palletizing includes gathering all product strains right into a single location. This may be an environment friendly method for high-volumes and may decrease the ground area required to your palletizing cell. Nonetheless, it would require a extra advanced community of conveyors in case you have loads of product strains.

Decentralized palletizing deploys smaller, impartial palletizing stations for processing single or small numbers of product strains. This could permit for larger flexibility however might require a bigger funding upfront.

Step 4: Outline the Conveyor’s Function

To decide on the fitting pallet conveyor, begin by defining its particular function. This must be pretty simple after going by the earlier steps.

Ask questions like:

• Will the conveyor transport free merchandise, pallets, or each?
• If transporting merchandise, will they be packaged or unpackaged?
• If transporting pallets, what properties of the pallets themselves may affect the kind of conveyor?

Every pallet sort has distinctive traits that may have an effect on your alternative of conveyor. For instance, pallets with fashioned toes can improve the soundness and longevity of storage, and are nicely suited to drag prepare conveyors.

Step 5: Make clear the Operational Properties of Your Conveyor

There’s a staggering variety of conveyor varieties. Earlier than even trying on the particular person varieties, it is useful to make clear precisely what operational properties you want out of your conveyor.

For instance:

• Load capability — How heavy are the pallets or gadgets that the conveyor will transport?
• Surroundings — Is the setting soiled or contain excessive or low temperatures?
• Loading and unloading procedures — How will gadgets be loaded onto the conveyor and unloaded at their vacation spot?**
• Conveyor velocity — How shortly do gadgets want to maneuver to maintain the right cadence inside your product workflow?
• Object properties — What properties of the merchandise themselves may have an effect on conveyor alternative? For instance, are gadgets delicate, heavy, or require particular therapy.

The choices you make now will assist you to slim down the choices.

Step 6: Decide the Appropriate Kind of Conveyor

Now, it is time to have a look at the several types of conveyor and examine them towards the wants of your software.

Among the many conveyor varieties embody:

• Chain pushed conveyors — These are pushed by chains and are perfect for robust, soiled environments and high-load pallets.
• Drag chain conveyors — As an alternative of pulling with a sequence, these pull the load. They’re comparatively compact and work nicely in high-temperature environments.
• Plastic belt powered conveyors — These are perfect for hundreds that may’t be supported by chains or rollers, in addition to merchandise that should not contact one another.
• Gravity conveyors — These unpowered conveyors use gravity to maneuver merchandise. They are often easy and cost-effective.
• Poly-v energy curler conveyors — Much like chain conveyors, these use a plastic belt as an alternative of a sequence. This makes them quieter and appropriate for gentle hundreds.
• Slat conveyors — Comprising a chain-driven loop of slats, these present a inflexible, flat floor. They’re typically used within the automotive business.

Step 7: Contemplate the Palletizing Cell Structure

Your palletizing cell format can have an incredible affect on efficiency. By minimizing pointless actions, you possibly can optimize your cycle time and enhance effectivity, particularly with robotic palletizing.

Varied format elements can have an effect on the cycle time, together with distances between components, the peak of the conveyor, and dimensions of the pallets.

Robotiq Functions Engineer Gabriel Boucher explains:

“The format of a palletizing cell is usually pretty easy. Nonetheless, some small adjustments will have an effect on the efficiency of the cell rather a lot. We are able to enhance the cycle time by merely transferring round some components.”

Step 8: Calculate the Return on Funding (ROI)

Understanding the return on funding (ROI) and payback interval to your new conveyor system is important for making knowledgeable choices. By analyzing the long-term affect, it helps you justify the preliminary value and in addition demonstrates the financial savings you may make.

Robotic palletizing typically permits you to get a quicker payback interval than merely buying a conveyor for guide palletizing.

Our ROI calculator permits you to get a transparent understanding of prices, financial savings, and timeframes so you possibly can work out how shortly your funding will repay.

Step 9: Set Your self Up for Future Scalability

Buying a pallet conveyor should not simply be a “fast repair.” When deciding on a conveyor, take into consideration the way you wish to scale your palletizing operations sooner or later. Development typically brings elevated throughput and new necessities to your finish of line processes.

Versatile options, corresponding to these constructed with modular parts, help you simply combine further components to your palletizing cell to deal with such adjustments. This flexibility is why so many firms are turning to collaborative robotic palletizing. The inherent flexibility of such robotic options makes it straightforward to scale and optimize palletizing lengthy into the longer term.

Step 10: Put money into the Proper Automation Options

If you’re contemplating automating your palletizing in addition to including a brand new conveyor, you will need to select the fitting automation resolution.

Investing in palletizing automation would not must be a tricky resolution. With the fitting steerage and a transparent understanding of the chances, you possibly can guarantee seamless integration that addresses each your fast wants and future scalability.

Learn our The Automated Palletizing Purchaser’s Information to get a easy, action-oriented information by this course of.

Must automate palletizing as nicely?

At Robotiq, we assist producers with automated palletizing options that mix the velocity, flexibility, and precision of robotics with easy-to-use software program.

No matter your present palletizing wants, our vary of palletizing options not solely enhances productiveness but in addition builds adaptability into your operations, enabling you to remain aggressive in at present’s altering markets.

Contact us at present to debate your palletizing concepts and learn the way we are able to take your materials dealing with course of to the subsequent stage!

What sort of conveyors have you ever tried? Inform us within the feedback under or be part of the dialogue on LinkedIn or Fb.