In many areas of internal material flow and distribution – particularly in that of warehouse logistics – semi-finished and finished products, and also packages, have to be palletised and depalletised every day, and often 24 hours a day. Complete automation of such operations is often difficult because a wide range of different products and packages has to be handled. The company FPT Robotik has now succeeded, with assistance from the vacuum specialists J. Schmalz GmbH, in developing a modular palletiser/depalletiser cell which can be used extremely flexibly for many different products and packages. The basic components of the palletiser/depalletiser "Layer Master" are either an industrial robot or portal robot, a multifunctional vacuum gripping system, the material-flow periphery in the form of conveyor belts for the incoming and outgoing products and the control technology and its software.

The palletiser/depalletiser cell is designed for the fully automatic handling of layers of identical products. Regardless of the product, each layer may weigh up to 300 kg or more, and the system can palletise/depalletise up to 300 layers per hour (or even more). The product layers may be delivered on standard or special pallets and stacked on such pallets. The product spectrum may vary widely, as long as each layer consists of identical products. Depalletising, sorting and palletising can be completely automated with the new handling system Layer Master, which means that the throughput is higher, the products are moved faster and with less damage, the work for the employees in the warehouse is less strenuous and, last but not least, multi-shift operation with fewer persons is possible.

Since the palletisation and depalletisation processes are regarded as key functions in commissioning and distribution centres, particular attention was paid during the development of the palletiser/depalletiser Layer Master to maximum performance and availability of the system. For this reason, only proven sub-systems such a standard industrial robot or a linear robot, robust material-flow equipment and other industrial components are used. Another important consideration was that the gripping system is the "heart" of the system, since the entire system is useless without a reliable "interface" between the robot and the products or product layers to be handled.

After thorough analysis, it was decided to develop and build a vacuum gripping system, since the desired cycle times, dynamic motion, wide range of products, secure gripping and multifunctionality cannot be achieved with any other gripping system (be it mechanical, mechanical-pneumatic or electromechanical). The vacuum specialist J. Schmalz GmbH in D-72293 Glatten therefore developed a vacuum gripping system capable of handling product layers, the intermediate sheets of cardboard and empty pallets with one and the same gripper.
For this, the special gripper SPZ-M-C utilises a combination of three different gripping principles: a large vacuum gripping area, consisting of many individual suction pads, an additional global vacuum chamber and an additional, auxiliary mechanical gripper.
The intelligent interactions of these proven gripping systems permits the careful handling of products – particularly complete product layers – which, in the past, had to be moved manually. Typical examples of such difficulties are product layers with gaps, products with removable lids, trays with stacking tabs or non-rigid products such as plastic bottles. Deep-frozen products are also often difficult to handle.

Technical specifications:

Gripper data

• Dimensions: approx. 1600 mm x 1400 mm x 1000 mm
• Gripper weight: approx. 270 kg
• Rated supply power: approx. 15 kW
• Actual position detection and gripping force detection

Capacity

• Pick&place time: depending on products – up to 300 layers per hour
• Layer weight up to approx. 300 kg  max.
• Temperature application range: standard between +5  C up to +40  C, optionally up to -30  C

Pallet sizes

• Standard pallet dimensions:
• Euro pallet (1200 x 800 mm)
• Industry pallet (1000 x 1200 mm)
• Special sizes (half pallets, etc.) upon request
• Product height: standard 50–500 mm
• Automatic measurement of the pallet: yes
•  Automatic measurement of the layer: yes
• Centring of the layer: optional

Robot system

• optional