Seasonal palletising with a mobile robot cell | OpiFlex

In food, beverage and consumer goods, the end of the line rarely runs at the same pace all year. One line runs flat out before Christmas and has low utilisation in spring. Another peaks in summer. A palletiser built for one line is sized for that line's peak.

One robot, several lines

An OpiFlex palletising cell is mobile. It is moved with a pallet truck, manually or by AGV, and docks at the line where the volume is right now. Because it has no fence, it takes about 80 % less floor space than a traditional palletising cell.

In one example from food, three lines run at 32 %, 24 % and 26 % utilisation over the year. Shared by one mobile robot, the total utilisation reaches 82 %.

Mixed pallets and display pallets

Display pallets are marketing's dream and production's nightmare: many variants, short campaigns, a lot of manual work. The cell builds mixed pallets and display pallets dynamically from the order in the ERP system, with up to six output pallets at the same time.

A display pallet cell can take five input pallets, change tools automatically, and handle layer sheets, covers and stabilisers before the pallet goes to the wrapper.

For mixed pallets, our 3D Tetris algorithm plans the pattern and reaches a fill rate in the high 90s %. It is fully deterministic and needs no AI and no training.

Traceability and AGV

Safety-sealed palletising with patented safety grippers gives full traceability on each pallet. The cell can work with AGVs from Toyota Material Handling: the AGV collects the finished pallet and brings in a new one.

This also helps with the coming EU packaging rules (PPWR), where empty space in transport packaging must stay below 50 %.

Results

In one food case, palletising capacity rose 2.6 times. Orkla has placed a follow-up order for flexible display pallet solutions in two factories, Kumla and Örebro.

The cell can also be rented through our sister company Rent a Robot: no initial cost, you pay when it produces.

Next step

Tell us how your volumes vary over the year and which lines you are thinking of, and we will take 30 minutes on Teams to see if a shared cell fits. Contact us.