Pallet conveyors are fundamental components in material handling and end-of-line operations. Choosing the right conveyor can have a direct impact on transit times, facility layout, and overall productivity.
The right pallet conveyor can reduce wasteful manual steps, optimize space, and even open the door to automated palletizing solutions. But the wrong choice can lead to increased costs, wasteful inefficiencies, and inventory bottlenecks.
To help you avoid these pitfalls, this guide walks you through 10 essential steps to choosing the right conveyor for palletizing.
Laying the foundation for improved palletizing processes
Choosing the right conveyor is more than just a physical purchasing decision. This can be a strategic move to improve your material handling processes.
If you use manual palletizing, where workers stack product on pallets, the right conveyor can help reduce dangerous ergonomic issues that can lead to physical injuries and even impact your employees’ mental health.
Ryan Weaver, Vice President of Commercial at Robotiq, explains:
“Palletizing is one of the most labor-intensive tasks in production and delivery. It poses a risk to the company because the repetitive lifting and stacking of heavy boxes increases the risk of injury. Additionally, the task is tedious and repetitive. “It means the work is very complex, making it difficult to find and retain staff willing to do the work.”
There are many additional benefits to using automated palletizing. The right conveyor can help optimize automated processes to create a smooth, efficient workflow. When combined with robotic palletizing, conveyors form a system that helps reduce common pallet problems such as stacking inefficiencies, misalignment, product damage, and inconsistent pallet quality.
Whether you use manual or automated palletizing, conveyors lay the foundation for an efficient and scalable palletizing process.
10 Steps to Choosing the Right Pallet Conveyor
Choosing the ideal pallet conveyor requires a clear understanding of your operational requirements, future goals, and constraints affecting your deployment.
Here are 10 steps to help you clarify which pallet conveyor will meet both your current and future vision for your end of the line.
Step 1: Decide whether to automate or manually palletize
First, you need to decide whether you will use a manual palletizing process or an automated process. This can have a fundamental impact on conveyor selection. If you haven’t previously considered automating your palletizing process, now is a good time to think about it.
Manual palletizing is a good option for small-scale operations with low packaging demands or budget constraints. In this case, you are looking for a conveyor that improves manual palletizing.
Automated palletizing offers significant benefits, including improved packaging consistency, increased workplace safety, and room for scalable growth. Robotic palletizing has become a powerful strategic move for many companies over the past five years.
Step 2: First map your existing processes
Before choosing a conveyor, take the time to plan your current manual processes. This is a key next step. Lean Robotics Framework This is something I always suggest before people add new technologies.
Marc-Antoine Lacasse, Applications Specialist at Robotiq, explains the importance of this step for our company. Free Palletizing eLearning Course:
“Mapping manual operations is the first step to truly understanding your application. Ask questions like: What’s the next step in the production line? How do pallets leave the cell? What tasks will you take to complete the entire process? Document whether this was done to create added value and cause downtime.”
To support this, please download: Free manual task map template.
Step 3: Decide on centralized or decentralized palletizing
You then need to take a step back and look at how the palletizing cell fits into the overall flow of the entire facility. Decide specifically whether you want to use it or not. Centralized or decentralized palletizing.
Centralized palletizing involves gathering all product lines in a single location. This can be an efficient approach for mass production and minimizes the floor space required for palletizing cells. However, more product lines may require more complex conveyor networks.
Decentralized palletizing deploys smaller, independent palletizing stations to handle a single or small number of product lines. This can provide greater flexibility, but may require more investment upfront.
Step 4: Define the role of the conveyor
To choose the right pallet conveyor, start by defining your specific purpose. It’s pretty simple once you’ve done the previous steps.
Ask questions like:
- Will the conveyor transport individual products, pallets, or both?
- If you ship the product, is it packaged or unpackaged?
- If you are transporting pallets, what properties of the pallets themselves can affect the type of conveyor?
each pallet type There are unique characteristics that can influence conveyor selection. For example, pallets with formed feet can improve storage stability and longevity and are well suited for applications such as: Drag the train conveyor.
Step 5: Clarify the operating properties of the conveyor.
There are a huge number of conveyor types. Before looking at the individual types, it is helpful to know exactly what operating characteristics you need from your conveyor.
for example:
- load capacity — How much weight will the pallet or item be transported by the conveyor?
- environment – Is the environment dirty or has high or low temperatures?
- Loading and unloading procedures — How are goods loaded on the conveyor and unloaded at their destination?**
- Conveyor speed — How quickly do you need to move items to maintain the correct flow within your product workflow?
- Object properties — What characteristics of the product itself can influence conveyor selection? For example, items that are delicate, heavy or require special handling.
The decisions you make now will help you narrow down your options.
Step 6: Choose the right conveyor type
Now it’s time to look at the different types of conveyors and compare them to the needs of your application.
some of many Conveyor types include::
- Chain driven conveyor — They are chain driven and ideal for rough, dirty environments and heavy load pallets.
- Drag chain conveyor — Instead of pulling with a chain, you pull the load. It is relatively compact and performs well in high temperature environments.
- Plastic Belt Driven Conveyor — Suitable for loads that cannot be supported by chains or rollers or for products that must not touch each other.
- Gravity conveyor — These non-powered conveyors use gravity to move products. It can be simple and cost-effective.
- Poly-V Power Roller Conveyor — Similar to chain conveyors, they use plastic belts instead of chains. This makes them quieter and suitable for lighter loads.
- Slate conveyor — Constructed from a chain-driven loop of slats, it provides a firm, flat surface. They are frequently used in the automotive industry.
Step 7: Consider palletizing cell layout
your Palletizing cell layout This can have a huge impact on performance. By minimizing unnecessary movements, you can optimize cycle times and improve efficiency, especially with robotic palletizing.
Various layout factors can affect cycle time, including distance between elements, conveyor height, and pallet size.
Robotiq Application Engineer Gabriel Boucher explains:
“The layout of a palletizing cell is generally very simple. However, some small changes can have a significant impact on cell performance. Cycle times can be improved by simply moving some elements.”
Step 8: Calculate return on investment (ROI)
Understanding the return on investment (ROI) and payback period for your new conveyor system is essential to making informed decisions. Analyzing the long-term impact helps justify initial costs and demonstrate savings.
Robotic palletizing provides a faster payback period than simply purchasing a conveyor for manual palletizing.
our ROI calculator With a clear understanding of your costs, savings and timescales, you can find out how quickly your investment will pay for itself.
Step 9: Prepare for future scalability
Purchasing a pallet conveyor shouldn’t just be a “quick fix.” When choosing a conveyor, think about how you will expand your palletizing operation in the future. Growth often results in increased throughput and new requirements for end-of-line processes.
Flexible solutions, such as those built from modular components, allow you to adapt to these changes by easily integrating additional elements into your palletizing cell. This flexibility allows many companies to Switch to collaborative robot palletizing. The inherent flexibility of these robotic solutions makes it easy to expand and optimize palletizing into the future.
Step 10: Invest in the right automation solution
If you are considering automating palletizing and adding new conveyors, it is important to choose the right automation solution.
Investing in palletizing automation doesn’t have to be a difficult decision. With the right guidance and a clear understanding of the possibilities, you can ensure a seamless integration that addresses both immediate needs and future scalability.
Read our article Automated Palletizing Buyer’s Guide Get a simple, action-oriented guide through this course.
Should you also automate palletizing?
At Robotiq, we support manufacturers with automated palletizing solutions that combine the speed, flexibility and precision of robotics with easy-to-use software.
Whatever your current palletizing requirements, our wide range of products Palletizing Solutions Not only does it improve productivity, it also builds adaptability into your operations so you can remain competitive in today’s changing marketplace.
Contact us today to discuss your palletizing ideas and see how we can take your material handling process to the next level!
What types of conveyors have you used? say Please leave a comment below or join the discussion on LinkedIn or Facebook.
