WHAT PALLETIZER SUITS YOUR PROJECT BEST? – A QUICK GUIDE

There are several types of palletizers in the market, that can cover different needs of production and packaging. But not every palletizer is suitable for every manufacturer, production, and project. So, how to choose the right one?

Let’s find out about the main features and benefits of each, focusing on bag palletizing:

ROBOTIC PALLETIZERS

When considering palletizing for your bagging line, surely the first that comes to your mind is the Robotic palletizer: a Robotic Arm that picks bags, boxes, bundles… and puts them on a pallet with mathematical precision, normally using a gripper or a vacuum system. But do you know the advantages of this system?

Robotic Palletizers are…

• Flexible: A robotic arm palletizer is able to palletize bags, boxes or bundles simultaneously in the so-called multi-palletizing configuration.
• A useful tool for simultaneous palletizing of different products or batches, providing from different production lines, onto different pallets.
• Cost saving: a well-designed layout will allow one single robot palletizer to do the work of 2 or 3 conventional palletizers. 
• Modular: you can start with a simple configuration and later on upgrade the line with automation elements.
• Versatile in the layout configuration: very convenient to those sites with space constraints such as hindering constructive elements and low-height.

So, if you have identified some of your project’s characteristics above, a robotic palletizer such as ILERPAL R may be the type of solution you need for your line.

If not, maybe what you need is not necessarily a robotic gripper, so let’s find out about further options.

GANTRY PALLETIZERS

Gantry palletizers are simple and robust solutions that can offer a quick return on investment, thanks to its optimized design. Despite not being known as such, these are also robotic palletisers, since palletising is carried out by a 4-axis Cartesian robot that moves within the frame of a gantry. Hence the name.

They are mostly suitable for end-of-line applications with a low to intermediate bag output (up to 420 bags per hour) where bags need to be overlapped (open mouth bags), although they can also palletize valve bags and FFS bags successfully.

Gantry type palletizers offer…

• Small footprint and optimised space: its modular design also allows compact configurations suitable for small spaces. 
• Adaptability: they can be configured as a full automatic solution with pallet dispenser, palletizing station and pallet transport on roller conveyors, or as a half automatic solution, with a pallet on the ground configuration with human intervention in the palletising process.
• Little investment for great results: It’s a cost-effective affordable solution to palletize goods.

There are several companies in the market offering gantry palletizers that are fairly good, but the flexibility of TMI’s Gantry type palletizer ILERPAL P, is to be highlighted: It has been extremely optimised, and with its simple structure and composition reaches great results on palletising while keeping costs in check, which is key to ensuring competitiveness.

LAYER PALLETIZERS

There are several kinds of layer palletizers. Amid them, the most common distinction in the industry is between high-level-layer palletizers and low-level layer palletizers. Aside from the differences in operation between the two types, layer palletisers work as follows:

The bags are lifted to the palletising position, i.e. the layer forming deck, where 4 side pushers are responsible to drag bags together and shape each layer. Layers lie directly on gates that open to place each one on top of the previous.

At TMI the model for High-level layer palletizer is ILERPAL C, which can reach an output of up to 2200 bags per hour, depending on configuration.

Layer palletizers are…

• Fast: using side pushers to form layers, ensures the highest possible output at the end of line, as several bags can be placed in position at the same time.
• Useful for those production lines where volume and productivity are needed to ensure competitiveness.
• Effective: pallet layers are perfectly aligned and stable at all times during transport.
• Energy saving: the components of ILERPAL C have been chosen to provide savings of between 20% and 25% compared to other types of gears generally used in palletizing systems.

All in all, layer palletisers are a very good option for medium to high outputs, where products are bagged in valve bags or FFS, which do not require overlapping.

For those cases where high output bag overlapping is required, hybrid palletisers were created:

HYBRID PALLETIZERS

Hybrid palletisers aim to fulfil the following needs:

1. Palletising open-mouth bags

2. Doing it at high speeds

How to do it without compromising the shape of the bags and pallet stability?

Hybrid type palletizers combine features of both robotic and layer palletizers, to achieve further palletizing performance levels for open mouth bags. They are similar to high level palletizers, but they perform the layer forming by means of robotic grippers and cartesian axes, always with the help of side pushers. This means higher output can be achieved while keeping the bag shape and the pallet stability optimal.

Hybrid Palletizers offer…

• Optimal pallet finishes in high production with open-mouth bags, keeping its shape thanks to overlapping.
• Versatility: Combined bag gripper and layer forming guides ensure an optimum handling of a wide range of bag formats.
• Stability of the pallet as it still counts with side pushers that aligns each layer perfectly to the other and at an optimal pallet size.
• Small footprint, whether it's because of the compact design or the shorter upward travel of the bag, hybrid palletisers are often great space optimisers.

TMI counts with two models of Hybrid palletizers:  ILERPAL H and ILERPAL W, each of them with different features and strengths, which can respond to the needs of a large number of manufacturers.

WHICH PALLETIZER DO YOU NEED?

Does some of this palletizer features suit the needs of your project? Ask us for a quotation and we will be glad to study your case to offer you the best solution for your end-of-line.