Robot Depalletizing and Descrambler Cell
Project summary
A large national retailer came to Midwest Engineered Systems looking to robotically automate a depalletizing and descrambling operation at one of their Wisconsin distribution centers.
The Challenge
Traditionally when pallets of material arrive at a distribution center, those pallets have to be broken down by workers quickly and efferently. That process can be labor-intensive, and with labor shortages being commonplace, keeping throughput consistent can be a real challenge.
The system had to take incoming pallets that contain stacked boxes of varying dimensions and remove the boxes by layer. The picked layers would be placed on an outgoing conveyor where the boxes would be separated out.
The Solution
A layer-picking robot picks layers of varying heights from a depalletizing tower and places them on a custom descrambling conveyor. The system consists of the following:
- Operator interface with incoming load detail input
- Depalletizing tower
- Layer-picking robot with custom End-of-Arm Tool (EOAT)
- Slip sheet detection and removal capability
- Descrambling conveyor
Impact to the Customer
The robot depalletizing and descrambler solution that MWES provided to this customer eliminated a depalletizing operation that at one time would require a fair amount of manual labor to perform. The robot cell gave our customer an average layer to layer pick rate of 15 seconds or four layers a minute and drastically improved their overall depalletizing throughput.
Midwest Engineered Systems has a wide range of experience in building robot depalletizing systems. If you’re looking to improve your depalletizing throughput, we have the knowledge and experience to make the project a success.
Contact us to learn how Midwest Engineered Systems can automate even your most complex and challenging operations today!
Innovation Through Automation
Client Details
The distribution center for a large nationally recognized retailer based in Wisconsin.