By Bruce Geiselman
ONExia — a custom machine builder, robotics integrator and industrial distributor — has developed a collaborative palletizer that uses a collaborative robot from South Korea-based automation maker Doosan Robotics.
The PalletizHD comes with a Doosan H-series collaborative robot paired with additional hardware and software from ONExia, which showed it in June at Automate 2022 in Detroit.
The PalletizHD eliminates the need for complicated programming, using drag-and-drop palletizing software developed by ONExia. The collaborative design means there is no need for caging or guarding, and a pallet jack or forklift can easily move the palletizer. The PalletizHD is capable of stacking pallets over 100 inches in height by utilizing the built-in collaborative lifter base designed by ONExia, according to the company.
“The Doosan robotic arm has a 20-kilogram (44-pound) payload, which, when you factor in the tooling, gives us the ability to pick up a 38- to 40-pound box,” said Tim Pelesky, ONExia marketing director. “In the palletizing industry, that’s great because it opens us up to be able to do a wide variety of applications. The cobot itself is intended to mirror the capabilities of a human. Moving at a rate of about seven picks per minute, we can go ahead and put a palletizing system in an area that was historically done by a human.”
Pelesky referred to “picks per minute” rather than cases per minute because, depending on weight, the PalletizHD can pick up more than one case at a time, he said. For applications involving moving multiple cases, ONExia provides customized gripping solutions.
The palletizer helps fill a need for companies that are having trouble finding workers.
End users have complete control of the entire system through the embedded touch screen on the HD lifter base. Users can build and save custom pallet layouts without writing a line of code, according to the company.
“The software within our system is custom-designed by us in our facility in Philadelphia,” Pelesky said. “It’s a front-end, drag-and-drop user interface for palletizing. A non-technical user can go ahead and put in the weight, length, width and height of the boxes into the system, drag and drop the boxes onto the pallet in real time, and then teach two points, and the system is up and running. A non-technical user can have a robot up and running and palletizing in under half an hour.”
The PalletizHD runs collaboratively out of the crate with no additional safety equipment required. Area scanners are available as optional safety equipment to slow the robot when someone enters the work area. They can be installed if an end user’s risk assessment determines they are necessary.
Contact information:
ONExia Inc., Exton, Pa., 610-431-7271, [email protected], https://palletizhd.com/index.html
Bruce Geiselman | Senior Staff Reporter
Senior Staff Reporter Bruce Geiselman covers extrusion, blow molding, additive manufacturing, automation and end markets including automotive and packaging. He also writes features, including In Other Words and Problem Solved, for Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing, Plastics Recycling and The Journal of Blow Molding. He has extensive experience in daily and magazine journalism.
Brückner Group announces management changes
