FEATURE PALLETS PALLETISERS & PALLET HANDLING
ROBOTIC PALLETISER HANDLES takes strain out of packing potatoes
A mobile robotic palletising system from Pacepacker is providing packing flexibility and improved pallet/product appearance
A
n economical and fully mobile Blu- Robot palletising system has provided
Belmont Farms with a plug-and-play robotic solution able to handle up to 1000 tonnes of potatoes per year. The system installed within a moveable frame by Pacepacker has given the Peterborough farmer exceptional packing flexibility which is easily moved around its 13 mile long site and improved pallet/ product appearance at the family-run firm. Belmont Farms grow, grade, pack and palletise 1000 tonnes of potatoes annually of which 600 tonnes are bought by UK fish and chip shops in 25kg bags and the surplus sold to bulk buyers. The introduction of stricter manual handling laws coupled with an ageing workforce tired of stacking up to forty five 25kg bags per pallet were key drivers behind Belmont Farms’ decision to invest in automated palletising. “Although 25kg bags are a permissible
weight within the Manual Handling Legislation in the UK, realistically it is very tiring for manual workers to stack high numbers of such bags every day,” says farmer Andrew Fletcher. “Now instead of the sacks being
stacked by hand the robot picks them and stacks them on the pallet so rather than three men handling the bagging operation we can get away with just two which frees someone to work elsewhere on the farm.” Critically, the automated solution was
S6 MAY/JUNE 2014 | MATERIALS HANDLING & LOGISTICS
required to palletise potato sacks at two separate potato stores located at either end of the farm. As a result Pacepacker designed a bespoke mobile system.
SAFETY AND EASY TRANSPORTATION “When designing a heavy mobile system which incorporates a 2,500kg palletising robot, key considerations include safety and ease of transportation,” explains Pacepacker’s business development manager Paul Wilkinson. “Taking into account weight and
footprint restrictions we mounted the Blu-Robot palletiser, pick and infeed conveyors, control system and perimeter guarding onto a heavy-duty support frame so that it could be easily transported between the farm’s two
Pacepacker’s fully mobile Blu-Robot palletising system within the support frame which can be transported between both potato stores on the estate
potato stores using a fork lift truck to load it onto the farms trailer.” It was an important factor for Belmont
Farms that the 5mx4m system could be easily sited around the farm, plugged in and turned on wherever packing was taking place without the need for any tooling changes. Moreover, the capacity offered by the automated palletising solution allows room for the farmer’s planned expansion in the future. Pacepacker’s pre-owned reconditioned
Blu-Robot which is typically half the cost of a new system works tirelessly and accurately with little intervention and its operation results in tidier stacks of sacks on the pallet than were previously possible with manual stacking.
The Blu-Robot works accurately with little intervention and results in tidier stacks of sacks on the pallet
CONSISTENT ORIENTATION According to Fletcher the bags are now consistently orientated on the pallet – label facing out and the right way up which improves the look of the finished pallet – an important consideration when delivering to customers. Potatoes are graded, weighed and filled automatically into the paper sacks which are stitched, closed on an automatic line and conveyed into the Pacepacker infeed and onto the pick conveyor which feeds the Pacepacker Blu-Robot. The entire palletising solution is capable of handling 300-400 tonnes of potatoes per week which for Belmont Farms results in sizeable growth options.
Pacepacker Services T: 01371 811544
www.pacepacker.com Enter 301
/ MATERIALSHANDLINGLOGISTICS
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