Automation for Palletizing Dairy Products

Lauyans & Company’s customer is an integrator specializing in food processing equipment. Their customer, a large dairy processor, needed a robotic palletizer. Lauyans & Company provided an automatic pallet dispenser for the system.

The dispenser only handles pallets; “food grade” was not a criterion. Lauyans provided the design and build; the integrator provided the Motor and Logic Controls as well as the site integration.

A stack of (10) 48” x 40” x 6” GMA-style wooden pallets is loaded into the pallet dispenser by forklift. The system controller signals “new pallet needed.” A pallet is distributed to a robotic palletizing station via CDLR conveyor. It then waits for the next signal and the process repeats. The dispense rate is (15) pallets per hour.

As soon as a pallet is detected “clear” of Lauyans’ dispenser, the unit automatically deposits the next single pallet from the bottom of the stack. Then it awaits the signal for the next “new pallet needed.”

The Automatic Pallet Dispenser automatically sends pallets to the robotic palletizer when needed. This cuts down on fork lift traffic and the need for a lift operator to be there for every cycle of the palletizer.