Benefits of Automated Food Product Palletizing
When it comes to food product automation, nothing is one-size-fits-all. From varied packaging specs to unique sanitation standards, we have solved our customers’ challenges with custom-engineered palletizing solutions.
We support the food industry through thoughtful automation for a wide range of product types including fruit, egg, dairy, meat, snack foods, baked goods, dry goods, condiments, and more.
Let us design and integrate an end-of-line packaging and palletizing system to meet your needs.
Custom Solutions
Whether your products are in drums, cases, trays, bags, or individually wrapped for point-of-sale purchase, we provide custom solutions to meet every application.
Industry Experience
With over 400 systems installed in the food industry, we bring a deep understanding of food safety, sanitation and cleaning standards required to protect product quality.
The Right Touch
We know how to select the robots, end effectors, and bagging systems best suited to reduce spillage and breakages, as well as protect delicate products during handling.
Flexible Layouts
Whether you’re retrofitting existing systems or expanding your facilities, our solutions will provide the flexibility needed to support your continued growth.
GET STARTED ON YOUR GROWTH
Ready to meet your production goals?
Let us design a completely integrated end-of-line system that’s right for your business.
We’ll even help you develop a comprehensive plan and business case to justify the investment.
Importance of Skilled Integrators for the Food Industry
Robotic palletizers can support higher throughput with proper integration. Upstream equipment runs quickly and robots need to keep up, as any kind of bottle neck at the palletizing stage will affect downstream production.
We’ve successfully integrated our systems with specialized peripheral equipment such as printers, soft turn conveyors, case turners, metal detectors, checkweighers, reject conveyors, barcode scanners, and more. Our experienced team ensures everything communicates with each other to keep your lines moving as fast and efficiently as possible.
Problem
Bob’s Red Mill wants to double the number of people eating their whole grains by 2030. Automation will help them get there. As the manual labor market dwindled during COVID, they started deploying larger industrial palletizing robots. The large solution worked for the big production lines, but not for smaller lines.
Solution
Columbia/Okura’ miniPAL+® delivered to Bob’s Red Mill a turnkey palletizing system with a small footprint that can also meet the company’s production goal of 14-cases-per-minute by allowing double-picking. The system includes:
- Cobot arm
- Safety area scanners
- Radar
- Guarding
- Vacuum gripper
- Palletizing software
Automated Robot Palletizing System for Egg Producers
Our automated palletizing robots feature an end effector (gripper) specially designed for the unique shape of the cartons. They stack eggs gently, using a palletizing pattern that ensures minimal breakage and safe transportation. Turnkey, end-of-line automation from Columbia/Okura can be customized for use with egg cases, crates and more. The result: less manual labor requirements, preserved product integrity, and higher production.
"The miniPAL® solution has freed up four operators over four shifts in the company’s 24-hour-operation. Instead of stacking pallets all day long, the operators can now focus on more value-added tasks, such as quality inspection, instead of something that’s boring."
Nick Chow, Engineering and Fabrication Manager at Bob’s Red Mill
About Us
For nearly 30 years, we’ve been helping our customers become more competitive, cost-effective, and productive in a fast-changing world.
Our Partnership Promise
From installation to 24/7 technical trouble-shooting, you’re getting a complete support and service team you can always rely on.
Our Palletizing Resources
Explore our blog to read case studies and more details about our robotic technology.