Laning and Pattern Forming Small Boxes for Robotic Case Packer - System Spotlight


This system was designed for one of our customers that wanted to rotate small cartons ninety degrees, stand them up on end, and divert into multiple lanes for a robotic case packer. Shuttleworth’s Slip-Torque® chain driven conveyor was chosen to reduce or eliminate any product scuffing or damage during handling. Cartons enter the system long-edge leading. A combination of special rollers, a bump turn, and guides are used to rotate the cartons and stand them up to be in the proper orientation for robotic case packing. Multiple lanes are easily accomplished with Shuttleworth conveyor because segmented rollers allow each lane to act as an independent conveyor with the rollers stopping under the boxes during accumulation. A pattern of 3 cartons wide by 4 cartons long was needed for the robot. First, our engineers designed an overhead brake to hold back the accumulated cartons. Then, a retracting end stop was used to put a separation between the pattern being picked up by the customer supplied robot. Finally, a pneumatic pusher from the side tightens up the pattern before pick-up.