Robotic Palletizers vs. Conventional Palletizers

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Which is Right for You?

Historically speaking, you had to choose between conventional palletizers for their speed or robotic palletizers for their flexibility, but you could not have both.

Conventional or Robotic:
MMCI Robotics is Closing the Gap!

Conventional

Conventional palletizers have typically been specified for operations packing a single SKU at very high rates.

Robotic

Robotic palletizers have typically been specified for operations requiring a high level of flexibility.

At MMCI Robotics, we are closing the gap between the speed of conventional palletizers and robotic palletizers so you no longer have to sacrifice speed for flexibility.

Conventional vs. Robotic

Allow MMCI to help you specify the right palletizer system for your operation.

	Conventional	Robotic
	Applications
Applications What are you palletizing?	Designed for a single SKU Suitable for boxes, bags (cubed shaped)	Designed for single or multiple SKUs Suitable for boxes, bags, pails, ingots, bottles, drums, bundles, bails or just about anything.
	Versatility
Versatility How many different products, sizes and pallet configurations?	Limited versatility Conventional palletizers are designed to palletize one product type at a time	Highly versatile Clamps, vacuum cups, forks and fingers on interchangeable end effectors can be adapted to many scenarios
	Speed
Speed How fast do you need to palletize and where are bottlenecks?	Cases: up to 150/min Bags: between 10 and 40/min High-level palletizers allow products to be formed into layers at much higher speeds than low-level palletizers.	Cases: up to 30/min, but can be increased dramatically by picking rows Bags: up to 40/min Can handle a wider variety of skus and product shapes and pallet patterns.
	Productivity
Productivity Consider the productivity of the entire system, not just the palletizer.	A conventional palletizer can often build pallets faster, but may be limited to bottlenecks elsewhere.	A jointed-arm robot can build four simultaneous pallet loads within its work cell.
	Costs
Costs Initial investment, operating costs, maintenance, training?	Initial costs: similar to robotic Higher operating costs as machines are powered by gear motors. Higher energy costs	Initial costs: similar to conventional Typically requires less upstream conveyor than conventional palletizers Lower energy costs
	Footprint
Footprint How much space is available and how is it configured?	Conventional palletizers and their required conveyor systems typically occupy a greater amount of floor space	Robots are an option where floor space is at a premium
	Down Time
Downtime How badly will downtime affect your operation?	More moving parts leads to more frequent downtime	Low maintenance requirements keeps downtime to a minimum.
	Maintenance
Maintenance Do you have a team in place?	Requires more preventative maintenance but less specialized training.	More reliable, significantly less downtime, requiring less maintenance.
	Training
Training How easy are systems to operate and maintain?	Conventional palletizers operate on the same control platform as other equipment in the facility so the learning curve to maintain is likely to be low	Robotic controls have evolved in the recent past and have become much more operator friendly and intuitive. MMCI and FANUC offer training programs for all levels of user interface and operation.
	Safety
Safety Both eliminate repetitive, heavy lifting and operate safely	Lockout keys	Lockout keys, gates, fence, redundant latching systems, safety sensors, light curtain