“Perfect Pick will change the way the market approaches each picking operations,” said Jeff Hedges, president, OPEX Material Handling. “It automates warehouse and distribution center operations with greater speed, accuracy and reliability than ever before.” Perfect Pick’s “one-touch” design is based on iBOT technology—intelligent, wireless vehicles that have 100% access to the inventory in a single aisle. Unlike other shuttle systems that must rely on lifts, conveyors or transfers, said Hedges, iBOTs travel around inside the storage rack at industry-leading rates, picking and stocking inventory simultaneously. They are capable of delivering totes or trays directly to the picking station located…
To build mixed pallet loads from an unlimited number of stock keeping units (SKUs), Axium’s (Booth 4823) load palletizer uses an exclusive algorithm, a vision-assisted product orientor, two synchronized robot arms and an automatically adjusting end-of-arm tool. The system attains rates up to 1,750 cases per hour. Based on CubeIQ software to process orders received from a warehouse management system (WMS), the system first determines the most efficient palletizing sequence based on various criteria (including product weight and dimensions, case strength and stability). Prior to picking, cases are oriented using a vision-assisted product orientor. Then, two robot arms alternatively pick…
Utilizing flexible gripper fork technology to manipulate four to six mixed cases simultaneously, and accurately stack them on a pallet, is the Mixed Case Row Palletizing (MXRP) robot-based palletizer from Grenzebach (Booth 7913). The gripper works with a load station that groups the cases in the proper sequence. It then elevates the products, allowing the forks to gently lift the packages from the bottom, explained Brian Keiger, general industry sales manager. “The forks can be adjusted both horizontally and vertically, letting the device handle various package types, including open top cases,” he said. The gripper works with software that builds…
With mixed stock keeping unit (SKU) order picking and palletizing only getting more complicated, interest in—and application of—robotic palletizing is on the rise. That’s because robotic palletizers flexibly address complexity, particularly when building mixed pallets to customer- or store-specific reverse sequencing requirements. “Whether the pallets need to be built so that each layer represents a different stop on a delivery route or to match store aisles, robotic palletizing systems are flexible, fast and accurate,” says Brian Keiger, general industry sales manager for Grenzebach Corp. “Further, robotic palletizers easily adapt and expand to match changing consumer demands.” Building custom, mixed pallet…
