A system called "PolyCut" removes strapping from pallets, thus replacing time-consuming and ergonomically demanding manual work steps. It can be used as a stand-alone solution or integrated into existing handling systems and their controls or warehouse management systems.
Somehow, all the robot arms look the same. But that's something they have in common with millions of standardized load carriers. In this case, the system consists of two components: firstly, the robot cutting head, which detects and removes the strapping bands from pallets loaded with small load carriers (KLTs) or packages, and secondly, the transfer unit, which takes the remaining strapping bands from the robot and removes them from the work area.
Cut the right thing
Using a laser light section sensor that scans the pallet sides, PolyCut detects the strapping band on the pallet in any position and also under different lighting conditions in the environment, different colors of the plastic band or in the case of twisted or spliced strapping.
Photos: PolyPlan
This allows the robot cutting head to reliably handle a wide variety of pallet formats and strap positions . The strap is cut with a pneumatically actuated blade. A hold-down clamps the strap during the cut. If, after the installation of PolyCut, additional pallet formats need to be recognized or new types of strapping need to be removed, the user of the robot system does not need to make any new parameter settings.
Disposal modules
PolyCut can be expanded with disposal modules for waste collection or shredding of the strapping material, which automatically dispose of the strapping remnants after cutting . To optimize cycle times and thus increase throughput, multiple transfer modules for disposing of the cutting unit can also be installed.
The manufacturer, Polyplan Polyurethan-Maschinen GmbH, is a company of the Pepperl+Fuchs
Group.
