Robot Crate Handling

A robot crate handling system from RMA Techniek.

The roller conveyor consists of 3 sections: the drop position, the buffer position and the stack position. The put-down position and the buffer position are driven together and the unstack position separately.

A pallet full of empty crates is placed on the roller conveyor with a forklift. When the buffer position is empty, the roller conveyor will rotate until the pallet is in the buffer position. This way, a space is available again at the depositing position to put down a new pallet.

When the stacking position is empty, the entire roller conveyor will start to rotate. This way, the pallet moves from the buffer position to the unstacking position. Subsequently, the pallet of the depositing position returns to the buffer position so that the depositing position is empty again.

The robot is equipped with a gripper that can pick up the crates, but also the pallets. If there is a full pallet on the stacking position, and the input roller conveyor of the case packer is empty, the robot will unstack the pallet layer by layer. When destacking, the crates are already placed in the right place on the roller conveyor.

When the pallet is empty, the robot picks up the empty pallet and places it on the pallet warehouse. If a full pallet has left the palletizer and the scissor lifts are up, the robot takes an empty pallet from the pallet warehouse and places it on the scissor lifts on the palletizer.

If the robot has placed an empty pallet on the scissor lifts, it will lower to the starting position. The pallet is clamped in place by pneumatic cylinders. The full crates, already well-positioned, arrive from the roller conveyor between the case packer and palletizer. Depending on which pallet is being stacked again, a formation is formed. When the formation is complete, the crates are pushed onto a plate by an "overzetter"

When the crates are on the plate, the plate is brought to the correct height by means of a lift system. The plate is placed above the pallet and the crates and the underlying layer are clamped in the correct position. Lastly, the plate is pulled out between the two layers and returns to the basic position.

The roller conveyor consists of 2 sections: the buffer section (for 2 pallets) and the pick-up section. Both sections are driven separately.

When the pallet is fully stacked by the palletizer, it rolls to the buffer section.
If the pick-up position is empty, the pallet rolls on to the pick-up position.
If there is already a pallet in the pick-up position, the full pallet will come to a stop at position 1 of the buffer section.
If there is already a pallet in the pick-up position and there is a pallet in place 1 of the buffer section, the pallet will roll from place 1 to place 2 at the same time that place 1 of the buffer section is refilled with a new pallet.

The total installation consists of: