ABB depalletizer replaces heavy lifting and improves efficiency

ABB’s Robotic Depalletizer software uses the information gathered by the vision sensor to provide the robot with a suitable grasping point for each box. | Credit:ABB

ABB launches a new Robotic Depalletizer solution designed for handling complex depalletizing tasks in the logistics, e-commerce, healthcare, and consumer packaged goods industries.

The solution combines an ABB industrial robotic arm with vision guidance and a new, custom gripper design. The solution is optimized for mixed load pallets with a variety of box sizes and types.

The vision system can quickly and easily identify a new box type and then adjust the grip location and gripper orientation to optimally pickup the box from the pallet. This shortens the setup time and minimizes the engineering effort to deploy a new depalletizing workcell.

The vision sensor enables the robot to detect specific carton boxes on pallets, allowing reliable depalletizing of several different load types. | Credit: ABB

“Changes in consumer behavior are leading to a rise in new sales channels such as omni-channel, direct to consumer (D2C) and e-commerce. These, in turn, are driving the need for more flexible and efficient order fulfillment and distribution infrastructures,” says Marc Segura, ABB’s Robotics Division President. “With the ability to depalletize boxes stacked in a variety of configurations from single and mixed pallets, ABB´s Robotic Depalletizer helps to meet this need, allowing faster and more accurate handling of a wide range of goods ready for the next stage in the distribution process.”

The robot can efficiently process pallets of up to 2.8m (9.2 ft) high and boxes up to 30 kg (80 lbs). The robot can work at speeds up to 650 cycle per hour, and do this 24 hours a day.

The ABB Robotic Depalletizer can easily pick from pallets comprised of a single type of box in defined layers. Credit: ABB

A variety of ABB robots can be deployed into the Robotic Depalletizer solution. This includes a range of four to six axis robots, which enables the solution to be appropriately size for the expected operations, and can make the solution more affordable if lighter payloads, or less complex pallet configurations are expected.

The Robotic Palletizer can place boxes to an out feed conveyor or it can even interact with an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) for removal of boxes. ABB recently acquired AMR provider ASTI and has integrated ASTI into its product line.