The way to Select the Proper Pallet Conveyor in 10 Steps

Pallet conveyors are a basic part in materials dealing with and finish of line operations. Selecting the best conveyor can have a direct affect on delivery occasions, facility structure, and total productiveness.

The precise pallet conveyor can cut back wasteful handbook labor steps, optimize your area, and even open the doorways to automated palletizing options. Nevertheless, the incorrect selection may result in greater prices, wasteful inefficiencies, and stock bottlenecks .

That can assist you keep away from these pitfalls, this information walks you thru the ten important steps for choosing the right conveyor on your palletizing.

Laying the Groundwork for an Improved Palletizing Course of

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

In case you are utilizing handbook palletizing — the place staff stack pallets with merchandise — the appropriate conveyor may help to cut back harmful ergonomic points that may result in bodily harm and even affect worker psychological well being.

Ryan Weaver, VP of Business at Robotiq, explains:
“Palletizing is among the most labor-intensive duties within the manufacturing and delivery course of. The excessive danger of harm 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 onerous to seek out and retain staff keen to do the job.”

In case you are utilizing automated palletizing, there are various additional advantages. The precise conveyor may help to optimize your automated course of to create a seamless, environment friendly workflow. When mixed with robotic palletizing, the conveyor types a system that helps cut back frequent pallet issues like loading inefficiency, misalignment, product harm, and inconsistent pallet high quality.

Whether or not you might be utilizing handbook 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 splendid pallet conveyor requires a transparent understanding of your operational wants, future targets, and constraints that have an effect on the deployment.
Listed below are 10 steps that can assist you make clear which pallet conveyor will meet each your present and future imaginative and prescient on your finish of line:

Step 1: Resolve on Automated or Handbook Palletizing

First, it’s essential to determine if you’ll use a handbook palletizing course of or an automatic one. This may 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.

Handbook palletizing is a viable choice for small-scale operations with rare packaging calls for or finances constraints. On this case, you’ll search for conveyors that improve handbook 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 powerful strategic transfer for a lot of firms within the final 5 years.

Step 2: Map Your Current Course of First

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

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

“Handbook process mapping is step one to essentially perceive the applying nicely. Ask questions like: What’s the subsequent step within the manufacturing line? How does the pallet depart the cell? Take the time to finish your complete course of and word which duties have been value-added and which have been downtimes.”

To assist with this, obtain our free handbook process map template.

Step 3: Resolve on Centralized or Decentralized Palletizing

It’s best to then take a step again and have a look at how your palletizing cell suits within the total circulate of your whole facility. Particularly, determine if you’re utilizing centralized or decentralized palletizing.

Centralized palletizing includes gathering all product traces right into a single location. This may be an environment friendly strategy for high-volumes and might reduce the ground area required on your palletizing cell. Nevertheless, it’d require a extra advanced community of conveyors in case you have plenty of product traces.

Decentralized palletizing deploys smaller, unbiased palletizing stations for processing single or small numbers of product traces. This may permit for better flexibility however could require a bigger funding upfront.

Step 4: Outline the Conveyor’s Position

To decide on the appropriate 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 selection of conveyor. For instance, pallets with shaped 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 wanting 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?
• Atmosphere — Is the atmosphere 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 selection? For instance, are gadgets delicate, heavy, or require particular remedy.

The choices you make now will assist you slender down the choices.

Step 6: Decide the Appropriate Sort of Conveyor

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

A few of 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 masses 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 — Just like chain conveyors, these use a plastic belt as an alternative of a sequence. This makes them quieter and appropriate for mild masses.
• Slat conveyors — Comprising a chain-driven loop of slats, these present a inflexible, flat floor. They’re usually used within the automotive trade.

Step 7: Take into account the Palletizing Cell Format

Your palletizing cell structure 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 structure components can have an effect on the cycle time, together with distances between components, the peak of the conveyor, and dimensions of the pallets.

Robotiq Purposes Engineer Gabriel Boucher explains:

“The structure of a palletizing cell is often pretty easy. Nevertheless, 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 on your new conveyor system is important for making knowledgeable choices. By analyzing the long-term affect, it helps you justify the preliminary price and in addition demonstrates the financial savings you can also make.

Robotic palletizing usually lets you get a quicker payback interval than merely buying a conveyor for handbook palletizing.

Our ROI calculator lets you 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 choosing a conveyor, take into consideration the way you want to scale your palletizing operations sooner or later. Progress usually brings elevated throughput and new necessities on your finish of line processes.

Versatile options, akin to these constructed with modular elements, will let you simply combine additional 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 simple to scale and optimize palletizing lengthy into the long run.

Step 10: Put money into the Proper Automation Options

In case you are contemplating automating your palletizing in addition to including a brand new conveyor, it is very important select the appropriate automation answer.

Investing in palletizing automation would not should be a troublesome resolution. With the appropriate steering and a transparent understanding of the probabilities, you possibly can guarantee seamless integration that addresses each your instant wants and future scalability.

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

Have to 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 in the present day’s altering markets.

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

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