Heinz-Golden Circle picks single-robot depalletising solution

New Zealand manufacturer Scott PHS Limited has come a long way since its beginnings as CBS Engineering in 1955.

At its inception, the Auckland-based company provided packaging lines primarily to the beverage industry. Scott PHS now designs, manufactures and supports an extensive range of package handling equipment including palletisers, depalletisers, conveyors, pallet handling and other associated equipment.

It services industries such as food processing, dairy, wine and beverage, handling a wide range of products including bottles, cans, cases, trays, shrink-wrapped collations, pails and bags.

The depalletiser in action.

Scott brought its innovative approach to a recent installation in Melbourne. Heinz-Golden Circle was looking for an economical solution to depalletise a range of empty PET bottles from two different-sized pallets simultaneously and provide bottles in single file to two separate filling lines.

The challenge for Scott was to develop a system that had the flexibility to handle the customer’s product range automatically and deliver it into a compact footprint but maintain good operator accessibility.

The conventional approach would have been to have two independent layer-style depalletisers, each dedicated to its own filling line. The Scott PHS solution, however, involved a single ABB IRB 660 180 kg robot picking layers from two pallet stations and delivering each of the layers to separate mass flow conveyors.

Each product is then placed on a pressureless single filler directly into each filling line. The robot also stacks layer boards, top frames and empty pallets automatically.