Palletizers

The History of Palletizers

Cases have been stacked by hand since the advent of the first production lines. However, the increase in production rates to levels of about 20 or more cases per minute necessitated the use of automatic stacking means. This need was addressed by use of a palletizer.

The first automatic palletizer was designed and built by Lamson Corp in 1948. Lamson was later bought by ARPAC, a company that now produces both mechanical and robotic palletizing machines. They produce complete end-of-line packaging equipment systems.

Palletizer Advantages and Disadvantages

Palletizer Advantages: With the increasing need of cutting cost and processing time in manufacturing, automation has been incorporated in almost every stage of manufacturing. Whether it is feeding, washing, assembling or packing, there are a myriad of machines that have automated and work with minimal assistance from operators.

Palletizer Disadvantages: However, palletizers are far more complex than palletizing equipment, doing a number of functions ranging from metering the incoming load, orientation of load, dispensing pallet, forming layers and many more.

Conventional and Robotic Palletizers

Numbers of palletizers have filled the market, ranging from conventional conveyor-based to sophisticated robotic palletizers. However, all have some disadvantages associated with them. Therefore, to overcome the shortcomings, hybrid palletizers are designed, which combine the high rate of stacking of conventional designs with the flexibility of robotic designs. The design effectively takes the best from both designs and provides an option that can palletize multiple loads at once.