Palletizing in production is one of the important stages of the production and storage process. After manufacturing, packing and packaging, the products must be assembled into cargo units that are convenient for storage and transportation. If the output volume is small, such work can be done manually. But with a constant flow of products, manual stacking becomes time-consuming and gradually becomes a limitation for the entire line.
Automation allows you to link packaging and warehousing processes, reduce the number of repetitive operations and make pallet forming more stable.
Why is manual styling becoming a problem
In production, employees can stack boxes, bags, or other containers on a pallet manually. This approach does not require complex equipment, but its performance directly depends on the number of employees and physical activity.
When the output volume increases, several problems arise at once. Finished products begin to accumulate in front of the palletizing area, employees have to perform a large number of identical movements, and the work speed may decrease during the shift.
In addition, it is more difficult to manually ensure the same laying scheme. If the packages are placed unevenly on the pallet, the finished cargo may be less stable when being moved by a loader or transported.
What does palletizing automation provide?
The automatic system allows you to determine the product layout in advance and repeat it from one pallet to another. The equipment receives products from the previous section, forms a set number of rows and creates a ready-made cargo unit.
The main advantages of automation are:
- reducing the amount of manual labor;
- stable laying scheme;
- improving site productivity;
- reducing the physical burden on staff;
- more efficient use of space;
- the ability to link palletizing with other stages of the line.
The effect is especially noticeable in enterprises with a large number of similar products, where the same operations are repeated throughout the entire work shift.
Palletizer and palletopacker: what is the difference
When organizing a site, it is important not to confuse two different processes. The palletizer forms the load on a pallet, that is, it puts the products in a predetermined sequence. After that, the pallet can be additionally fixed by the packaging equipment.
Depending on the technology, pallet packers can also be used on the site, but their task is already related to fixing the formed cargo.
Thus, palletizing