Packaging Machines
Pallet Inverters
About Pallet Inverters
Pallet inverters are crucial in warehouse and logistics operations. These machines serve to rotate, invert, and aid the transfer of goods between different types of pallets. They are instrumental in situations where goods need to be shifted from wooden to plastic pallets, or vice versa, for sanitary, safety, or operational reasons. This is especially relevant in industries like food and pharmaceuticals, where hygiene standards are stringent. Wood pallets may also need to be exchanged for treated wooden pallets for export out of the UK. These machines are also commonly used to replace damaged or broken pallets, to reduce the risk of pallets falling from pallet racking, or where pallets need to be fed into an automated system.
Moreover, pallet inverters facilitate the easy and safe retrieval of damaged goods at the bottom of a stack without the need to manually restack the load. This not only saves time but also reduces the risk of injury to workers.
In essence, pallet inverters enhance efficiency, safety, and compliance with hygiene standards in the fast-paced environment of warehouses and logistics centres, making them an invaluable part of modern supply chain operations.
Our pallet inverter types:
PALOMAT® STAND ALONE
Automation is a key word in obtaining efficiency. The pallet stacking magazines / pallet dispenser PALOMAT automates the pallet handling, and the procedure of pallet stacking and destacking is made noticeably more efficient.
The pallet magazines/ pallet dispensers in the PALOMAT Stand Alone line is designed for companies, who have a need for handling empty pallets at floor level. The PALOMAT is an independent unit, which adds efficiency to your pallet handling and at the same time protects your employees from inappropriate manual heavy lifting. Contact North Conveyors Ltd to discuss your Pallet Stacking Magazine requirements.
PALOMAT® INLINE
Are you ready to save time and money on the design and production of pallet magazines for your palletising projects? Then outsource with PALOMAT® Inline! The pallet stacking magazine, which is 100% customised to your project, is the ideal component for stacking and destacking empty pallets in production lines. PALOMAT® Inline is equipped with a terminal box for external control, complies with the current machinery directive and is therefore easily integrated into the complete system. Regardless of conveyor type, 4-way pallet type and pallet direction, PALOMAT® Inline is suitable for your project.
With our automatic standard pallet stacking magazine product, you achieve an efficient, reliable, and economical production line while improving your project’s bottom line. Get one step closer to automated pallet handling. Outsource your next pallet magazine to the expert: PALOMAT®.
Market Sectors
Warehouse Automation
Warehouse automation is the application of computer software and/or automated machinery to improve the efficiency of logistics operations. Typically, this refers to operations within a warehouse or distribution center, automating tasks such as inventory and stock management, put away, picking, packing, transport of product on a warehouse roller conveyor systems, and sortation. The term intralogistics is commonly used when referring to solutions for the warehouse industry, and the term defines the marriage of software systems to physical automated machinery, allowing businesses to control the physical flow of product around their operations using high level software applications, which provides tracking and status information at all stages of their operations. Intralogistics solutions allow businesses to gain real-time productivity data for their operations, allowing them to identify bottlenecks and problem areas, and collect data about their operation so on-the-spot decisions can be made about stock holding, labour resource, etc. Data can be collected about their operations, so forecasts can be produced for future planning, which is a very powerful tool in a modern warehouse operation.
Warehouse automation systems are comprised of a variety of hardware and software components, some examples of these are as follows:
Automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), including pallet cranes, miniload cranes, shuttles, and autonomous mobile robots (AMR). These technologies service a rack(s) of storage locations, allowing many levels of stock to be stacked vertically, and allowing for high storage densities of product, which is automatically stored into and retrieved from the racking when the product is required to be picked. ASRS technologies remove the need for human operators to physically travel to stock holding locations, once picked conveyor systems will then transport the tote, box or pallet of product to an operator for picking, and in the case of AMR systems, the complete rack or pallet of product is brought by the robot to the operator for picking.
Conveyor systems enable the automated movement of products around a warehouse, removing the need for operators to physically move product between locations, which is a non-value adding activity. Containers can enter automated conveyors in one area of the warehouse and, either through hard-coded rules or data input, be moved to a selected destination.
Vertical carousels and lift storage systems are based on paternoster lift or vertical carriage lift technology, allowing for high density vertical storage of small to medium product sizes. This technology is similar to vending machines, but on a larger scale, and can provide a cost-effective solution for the automated storage and retrieval of stock in a warehouse or factory.
Sortation systems enable the sortation of stock items or complete order parcels. Sortation systems are available in a wide variety of hardware options, depending on budget, throughput, and number of sort destination requirements. Automated sortation removes the need for manual operator sortation, massively reducing sort errors through human decision making. Sortation using autonomous mobile robots (AMR), provides a robust system compared with traditional fixed infrastructure type sorters, removing the single point of failure, and providing flexibility and almost infinite expansion possibilities.
Industrial and collaborative robots, typically four and six-axis designs, are used for palletising, de-palletising, packing, and order picking.
Factory Automation
Factory automation is the process of incorporating automated machinery into the manufacturing process of components and products. With automated systems in place, manufacturing businesses have the ability to manufacture and assemble goods without the need for an excessively large human workforce, which could prevent businesses from making profit. The aim of factory automation is to decrease risks associated with laborious and dangerous work faced by human operators, the main advantages of adopting factory belt conveyor systems for factory processes are as follows:
- Remove human operators from dangerous environments
- Remove tasks from human operators, which involve monotonous or hard physical work
- Improve process accuracy
- Increase process throughput and cycle time
- Reduce operating costs
- Increase process resilience
Automated systems in manufacturing environments generally fall into three categories, integrated production lines, robotic systems, and special purpose machines.
Integrated production lines are the most common solution seen in manufacturing environments, these lines are typically adopted to perform a specific set of functions in a process in a specific order, such as bottling lines in a drinks manufacturing environment. Each process stage in the manufacture of a specific product is automated in a linear flow layout, taking raw materials or components and bringing them together to form the finished product.
Robotic systems are common in modern manufacturing environments, their functions can be used to perform a variety of tasks, and due to their flexibility in operation, they can be used for bespoke applications where speed, accuracy, and repeatability is required. Most commonly however, industrial and collaborative robots are used in the following applications:
- Case packing
- Palletising and de-palletising
- Assembly
- Parts manufacturing
- Machine tending
- Welding
Special purpose machines as the name suggests, are machines designed and developed to perform a specific function in a manufacturing operation. The function that requires automating is often very unique, and so “off the shelf” automated machines and solutions are not readily available, and so a machine needs to be developed specifically for that purpose.