There are many different gripper types available, and the type of gripper required will depend on the product and application.
The table below lists some of the standard products in the industry along with an indication of the best gripper technology to use. Obviously, every application is unique so please contact us to get an accurate assessment of the gripper type required.
There are many different benefits of an automated palletising system, and the benefits to your company will be directly related to your own specific situation. However, there are some benefits that are common to virtually every automated palletiser installation and these are outlined below.
Production Increase
Following installation of an automated palletising system, most companies typically experience a +40% production increase. This is usually due the following factors:
An automated system does not take holidays or breaks, so there is no need for your palletising or production process to stop.
As the palletiser is reliable and consistent in its output, there is then a forced takt time. This means that the production process further up the line has to keep to this takt time to keep the palletiser running at optimum speeds.
An automated system will be able to work longer hours than an employee palletising by hand. The system will work shift after shift, and can also work 24/7 if required.
Faster palletising speeds can be achieved with an automated system. This is partly due to the fact that the system won’t stop or get distracted, along with the fact that the RSI risk has been removed.
Fast Payback
Payback on an automated palletising system is usually very very quick if you are currently palletising by hand. By the time you have factored in labour cost savings, value of the increased production output, and the savings in HR cost and RSI risks, payback time is often less than one year.
Reduction in Health & Safety Claims
Health and safety risks are usually high when you are palletising by hand due to the large amounts of manual labour required. However, with an automated palletising system these risks and the associated costs are completely removed, thereby reducing your risk of Health & Safety claims from palletising to zero.
Other Benefits
There are many other benefits of an automated palletising system, however some of the additional key benefits that our customers have found include:
Impressed customers. When your customers see a robot palletising in your factory, they can’t help but be impressed with your technologically advanced processes. This in turn helps to build and improve customer relationships and trust as they can see that you’re using the best and most cost-effective methods of producing the products you’re selling to them.
Reduction in errors and improved stack quality. An automated palletising system will reliably pick and place product onto the pallet in exactly the right position. This removes the risk of transit damage and pallet slippages being caused by product being placed incorrectly on the pallet. It also removes the associated costs of having to replace product that has been damaged in transit.
Boosts staff morale. An automated palletising system typically boosts staff morale. This is often due to the fact that staff no longer have to perform the repetitive task of stacking pallets by hand, and are enjoying their new role within the company. Staff also enjoy the feeling of achievement they get by learning how to run and reprogram the palletising system.
Whilst these are some of the benefits of installing an automated palletising system, this is by no means an exhaustive list. Each installation will have its own merits and benefits depending on the current method of palletising and the type of automated system that is installed.
Open top boxes and crates can indeed be automatically palletised as shown in the video below!
The typical method for automatically palletising open top boxes or crates is for the product to come off the production line conveyor onto an underneath pick station. The product is then pushed off the pick station onto the tines of the underneath gripper head. Once on the underneath gripper tines, a clamp then clamps the top edge of the box or crate to hold it securely as the item is moved across to the pallet stack. Once the product is in the correct position on the pallet stack, the gripper will release the top clamp and slide the product onto the pallet stack.
If you would like to know more about the different types of product that can be palletised and the methods used, then please do get in touch on 01223 499488 or contact us at helpline@granta-automation.co.uk. We will also be very happy to arrange a free trial of your product on a palletiser if you require this.
There are many different types of products that a robotic palletiser system can handle. From cartons, boxes, bags, bottles, and collation trays, right through to open top crates and display boxes. However, a robotic palletiser is not limited to just these types of products.
With a robotic palletising system, the robot gripper or head is designed to suit the type of product being lifted. There are many different varieties of gripper head and bespoke grippers can be created to pick and place product if a standard gripper is not suitable for the product. Below is a brief summary of product types and the type of grippers that are used to pick and place them with palletising.
Vacuum Gripper
A vacuum gripper picks and places using vacuum so it is well suited to products with a flat, non porous surface area. It may pick one product at a time or multiple products at a time depending on the speed requirements of the production line. Products that can be picked and placed using a vacuum gripper include:
Boxes
Cartons
Display boxes
Some types of bags
Panels
Sheets
Boards
Bag Gripper
A bag gripper has positioning pins, lifting pins and a centre clamp which hold and support the bag as it is being picked and placed. Products that can be picked and placed using a bag gripper include:
Bags
Sacks
A bag gripper will be able to pick and place bags and sacks of any material type; such as plastic, paper, hessian etc.
Underneath Gripper
An underneath gripper works by sliding the product onto tines, and then gripping the top of the product whilst it is being picked and placed. This type of gripper is usually used where the product is fragile, or can’t be picked and placed using vacuum or a bag gripper. Products that can be picked and placed using an underneath gripper include:
Heavy cartons or boxes
Boxes that are not suitable for vacuum picking
Bags that can’t be picked and placed with a bag gripper or vacuum picked
Collation trays
Open top boxes
Display boxes
Open top plastic crates
Open top cardboard crates
Shrink wrapped items
Packs of bottles
Parallel Gripper
A parallel gripper picks and places items using two parallel plates that close in against the items sides to grip it whilst it is being picked and placed. Products that can be picked and placed by a parallel gripper include:
Boxes
Shrink wrapped trays of goods
Display boxes
Bespoke Gripper
A bespoke gripper is specifically designed to pick and place a particular product. They usually clamp the product in some format, and this clamp is then released once the product has been picked and placed. Products that are usually picked and placed with a bespoke gripper include:
Large bottles, ie. 3 litre or 5 litre bottles
Drums
Cans
Irregular shaped items
Very heavy items
Very large items
Fragile items
As you can see, a robotic palletiser can handle a virtually unlimited number of different product types! The type of gripper used in each application will depend on the product type being palletised along with the palletising speeds that are required.
If you would like to know if your product would be suitable for automated palletising then feel free to get in touch with us on 01223 499488 or contact us at helpline@granta-automation.co.uk. We will also be very happy to arrange a free trial of your product on a palletiser if you require this.
With cobot palletisers becoming more commonplace in the market, they are often confused with industrial robotic palletisers. So, what exactly is the difference between a cobot palletiser and industrial robotic palletiser? And what are the pros and cons of the two types of system?
The term cobot is short for collaborative robot; these robots may also be referred to as desktop robots. The key difference between collaborative robots and standard industrial robots is the fact that collaborative robots have been designed with inbuilt sensors and force monitoring systems that allow them to work more safety alongside humans. As a result, cobots are typically a lot smaller than industrial robots, have lower payloads, and work at slower speeds; as this enables them to stop safely if they come into contact with a human. One of the common myths about cobots is that they don’t require guarding or safety fencing. This is true in instances where the cobot is picking and placing very lightweight objects very slowly or doing a very low force movement very slowly. However, if the cobot is lifting any weight (e.g. 5Kg) or moving at the normal speeds required for palletising, it does technically require area scanners or guarding similar to an industrial robot to enable it to meet the machinery directive safety standards. This is due to the fact that the forces required for lifting items are enough to result in pinch points as items are placed on the pallet that could cause harm to humans. Also, the stopping times are not fast enough at higher speeds to meet the machinery directive. As a result, cobot palletiser installations should always be assessed in accordance with the machinery directive, be risk assessed, and normally have guarding or area scanners installed to meet the requirements for forces and stopping times.
Cobot Palletiser Disadvantages
There are two key disadvantages of a cobot palletising system; payload and speed restrictions. Different systems will have different payloads, but typically a cobot will have a low payload and will therefore only be able to lift lightweight products. A cobot will run at slower speeds than an industrial robot, which may mean that a cobot palletising system is not able to run at the speeds required to suit your production process, and you could end up creating a palletising bottleneck if you use a cobot palletiser. Typically, a cobot palletiser will only be able to pick and place using a vacuum gripper as most other types of gripper would exceed the payload of the robot, so a cobot palletiser may not be suitable for some types of products. Cobot palletisers are unable to palletise products where an underneath gripper is required due to the fact that the weight of an underneath gripper is usually more than the weight the cobot can lift. Due to the short reach of the cobots they can normally only palletise from one production line. Also, slipsheets cannot easily be used as the system typically does not have enough reach to pick and place them. Unless you are palletising very lightweight items, the cobot will require area scanners or safety guarding, which will require an area of approximately 2-3 square metres.
Cobots typically are built very lightweight to enable them to detect small forces during movement and enable them to stop in time. This means that they have a shorter working life than standard industrial robots and are less reliable. They are also often less precise in their movements, and have less accuracy and repeatability than most industrial robots.
Cobot Palletiser Advantages
Cobot palletisers can be good when you are palletising lightweight products at modest speeds. They are typically small and use a minimal amount of floor space. Typically, a cobot palletiser will be able to pick and place boxes onto two pallet positions. Some cobot palletising systems are able to handle both euro and standard pallet sizes, but it is worth checking this as not all are able to. Most cobot palletisers will have some form of fairly simple programming software that enables you to program the palletiser pick and place positions, and stack patterns. This usually involves teaching the cobot the pick and place points for each item on a palletising layer, and then duplicating and rotating each layer to create a complete pallet stack pattern. Creating these pallet stack patterns is usually quite time consuming in the first place, but they can typically be stored and reused. Providing it meets your speed and weight requirement, a cobot palletising system is sometimes a lower cost solution.
Industrial Robot Palletiser Disadvantages
The key disadvantage of a robotic palletising system is that there is no option to run the system slowly with light weights in order for humans to work alongside. A robotic palletising system will often require a bit more space than a cobot system and will sometimes require a higher initial capital outlay than a cobot palletising system. In many but not all instances, robots require more skill and time to set up and program.
Industrial Robot Palletiser Advantages
They key advantages of an industrial robot palletising system are the fact that they are more versatile and can take higher payloads. As a result, they are able to palletise higher payloads at faster speeds than a cobot palletiser. There are many different gripper options available for picking and placing product, and it is rare that a robotic palletiser will not be able to palletise at the same speed or faster than your production process. The many different gripper options allow the palletiser to palletise a large variety of products such as: boxes, display boxes, bags, trays, bottles, sacks, drums, open top crates, shrink wrapped items, cans, etc. Where high speeds are required row gripping or layer forming palletiser grippers can be used to increase the number of products being picked and placed at a time. Robotic palletisers can also be designed to work autonomously without any human input, ejecting full pallets once complete without stopping the palletising process. If you choose a robotic palletising cell that has easy programming software, your factory staff will be able to program the robot for different size products and stack patterns a lot faster than a cobot system. A robotic palletising system can also be used to palletise off multiple lines simultaneously – even if the different lines have different types of products coming off them. Typically, the payback time on a robotic palletising system is very fast, and as a rule of thumb, if you have the equivalent of one person employed full time for palletising, there is payback in less than 2 years.
Robotic palletisers are also built a lot more sturdily than cobots with more accuracy, repeatability, and strength to payload ratio; as a result, they have a longer working life with less faults.
As you can see, there are advantages and disadvantages for both cobot palletisers and robotic palletisers and it is important to consider what you wish to achieve before deciding which type of palletiser is best for your application. Some key points to consider when making a choice as to which type of palletiser to purchase include;
What floor space is available?
Will the system be able to meet the required cycle time?
Do you want it to be able to run the system faster in the future if production increases?
What future requirements are there for different types of products?
Do you need to be able to stack off multiple production lines?
What weight is the product being palletised?
Can the product be vacuum picked?
Is lifetime of the robot an important factor?
How important is accuracy?
There are also some helpful tools that have been created to enable you to calculate the ROI of investing in a palletising system and the links to download these are below:
If you would like any further information on cobot or industrial robot palletising systems then feel free to get in touch with us on 01223 499488 or contact us at helpline@granta-automation.co.uk.
Some product types better lend themselves to automated palletising than others. One of the best types of products for automated palletising is boxes. However, not everything comes in boxes! Some products need to be packed in other ways such as bags or sacks. These are usually just as easy as boxes to automatically palletise, but depending on their properties, can sometimes be more complex to automatically stack onto pallets due to the nature of the product inside them or the material the bags/sacks are made of.
Typically, automated palletising of bags or sacks is not an issue at all. When the bag or sack being palletised is made of paper or similar, the bags don’t tend to slip once they’ve been placed onto the pallet so a neatly formed stack can be created without any special measures needing to be used. Similarly, where the product inside the bag is fairly stable and doesn’t move around, the bag can be run through a bag flattener, or over square rollers on a conveyor, to even out the distribution of the product in the bag before it is picked and placed onto the pallet. Once the product is evenly distributed through the bag, the gripper will be able to pick and place the product with minimal disturbance to the bag and it will result in a neatly stacked pallet. Depending what the bag being palletised contains, the bag gripper may be programmed to drop the bag onto the stack, as the dropping height can actually help to form the product into place and improve the stack quality. Where bags are likely to slip when placed on top of each other, a vacuum bag gripper will usually be used. This is a large vacuum cup in a ring with soft foam around the edges which can pick many different types of bags and place them in place very neatly without dropping them. Alternatively, where a bag gripper or vacuum gripper are not suitable then an underneath gripper can be used. An underneath gripper will slide underneath the bag, and then delicately place the bag onto the pallet by pushing it off a sliding plate. All of these methods have their own benefits and it is often best to talk to a specialist and arrange for a free trial to determine which method is best suited to your products.
The video below shows a bag palletiser in action.
However, when bags or sacks are loosely filled with product, or the outer bag is plastic, additional methods will likely need to be used to ensure the pallet is neatly stacked. This is because when a bag is loosely filled, the product inside the bag is not evenly distributed throughout the bag, and once you have multiple bags that are unevenly filled placed onto a pallet you can very quickly end up with an unevenly stacked pallet. There can also be issues when the bags or sacks are plastic as they can start to slide away from the position that they’ve been placed on the pallet and then create an uneven stack. Without correcting or eliminating these issues, you very quickly end up with an unstable pallet that is very likely to suffer from transit damage.
There are several different methods that can be used to help eliminate these issues. A couple of the more commonly used methods are to shrink wrap the pallet as it is stacked to stop product movement, or to stack into a cardboard sleeve pallet case as this prevents product from slipping off the edge of the pallet. Both of these methods help to minimise movement of the product as it is being stacked and keep the pallet stable, thus reducing the risk of transit damage. Another method that is sometimes used is a former that slides up the pallet stack to help it hold its shape as the pallet is stacked.
When automating the palletising process of unstable products, the most commonly used method is to palletise directly onto a pallet that is placed on a wrapper. This allows the robotic palletiser to place a certain amount of product onto the pallet, then the pallet can be wrapped, before placing the next layers. This helps to keep the product in position as the stack is formed and therefore creates a stable pallet.
Whether or not your pallet stacking process can be automated will depend entirely on the product being palletised. In most cases it is possible for unstable product to be automatically palletised but there are a few cases where it may not be possible. Areas that may need to be considered when automating palletising of unstable products include:
Is the product being palletised into a cardboard sleeve?
Does the product have to be held in place whilst the next product is placed on top?
Does the pallet need to be shrink wrapped as the pallet is stacked to stop the product from slipping off the pallet?
Is the product uneven in shape?
Do the bag contents move around as the bag is picked up?
As you can see, it is very rare that unstable product can’t be automatically palletised. If you would like to know more about what products can be automatically palletised, or would like to arrange a free trial of your product on a palletiser, please contact us on 01223 499488 or contact us at helpline@granta-automation.co.uk.
Row gripping is the term used to describe the gripper head on a robotic palletiser that picks and places a row of items at a time. Row grippers are usually used to increase the cycle speed as multiple products can be picked and placed at a time. They are usually used on high-speed production lines.
A row gripper can be any gripper expanded to pick more than one product at a time e.g. vacuum, underneath, bag gripper etc. The type of gripper used will depend on the product being palletised.
Typically with a row gripper the product will come off the production line, and then the right number of items will be collated onto a conveyor or bag pick conveyor, before being picked by the gripper and placed on the pallet. Depending on the stacking pattern required, bump turn conveyors or transfer conveyors may be required to orientate the product as it come off the production line before it is picked by the gripper.
To give a worked speed example:
Let’s take a typical robot that can comfortably do 8 pick and place cycles per minute.
With a single product gripper this would make the run rate 8 products per minute.
With a row gripper moving 5 products at a time this would make a run rate of 8 x 5 = 40 products per minute.
The videos below show some examples of row gipping and the different types of conveyors that can be used to orientate the boxes before they are collated and picked.
This video shows how a vacuum row gripper works
This video shows row gripping with a bump turn conveyor being used to orientate the boxes
This video shows row gripping with a transfer conveyor being used to orientate the boxes
The short answer to this question is ‘Yes’, automated palletising results in a neater pallet stack than hand palletising. However, let’s look at this in more detail.
When a pallet is stacked by hand, the neatness of the stack is typically determined by how well the operator places the product on the pallet. However, there are several factors that can affect how neatly a pallet is stacked by hand:
How Much Pride The Operator Takes In Creating A Neatly Stacked Pallet Some operators will take great pride in producing a very neatly stacked pallet. They will pay great attention to detail and ensure that everything is stacked neatly and correctly. An experienced operator will also know exactly what needs to be done to create a neatly finished pallet. However, if your usual operator is absent, and another member of staff or a temporary member of staff has to stack pallets, this can be detrimental to the finished pallet quality as they may not be used to stacking pallets, or may not take the same pride in creating such a neatly stacked pallet. Poorly stacked pallets can then lead to transit damage issues as the product may get damaged during transit.
How Fast The Product Is Coming Off The Production Line The speed at which product comes off a production line can make a difference to how neatly stacked a pallet is when you are palletising by hand. If product is coming off the line at very high speeds, the operator may not have time to realign a box on the pallet that has accidently been placed incorrectly without causing delays to the upstream production. This can result in pallets not being stacked as neatly as you would like them to be.
How Well The Product Stacks Some products, such as boxes, trays, crates, etc, fit the pallet well and stack neatly on top of each other with minimal effort, resulting in a very nice and neat pallet stack. However, products such as bags and sacks can be a lot harder to stack neatly. If the product inside the bag is loose and moves around, it can be very difficult to place the product on the pallet neatly. Products like this can result in a very lopsided pallet that is unstable.
Product Requires Wrapping As It Is Stacked Some products, such as plastic sacks with loose product inside, may need shrink wrapping as they are palletised to stop them from slipping off the pallet. This can be quite time consuming when palletising by hand as bags have to be placed, and then the pallet wrapped, before the next layers are placed. Typically, pallets of this type of product cannot be stacked as high as other products, and the finished pallet will not look as neat.
When product is automatically palletised, there is an element of consistency and reliability that is not possible when palletising by hand. An automated palletising system will palletise product with extreme accuracy and repeatability, which results in a very neatly stacked pallet. So how does automated palletising overcome the issues that can arise from palletising by hand?
Consistency In Stacking Methods An automated palletising system will repeatably pick and place product with extreme accuracy, which results in very neatly stacked pallets. Most systems will allow you to select how each layer should be formed to enable you to optimise your pallet stack pattern. This precision and repeatability results in consistency across pallets of the same product, and reduces the risk of transit damage to your products.
Palletising Speed Matched To Production Speeds With an automated palletising system, the palletiser can be specified to match or exceed production speeds. This ensures that your palletising system does not become the bottleneck in your production process. With high speed production lines, products are typically palletised using a row grip method, or layer former, as this enables higher palletising speeds because multiple products are being picked and placed at the same time. Even at high speeds, the palletiser will still pick and place product with the same reliability and accuracy.
Grippers To Suit The Product Being Palletised A robotic palletising system will be specified with a gripper to suit the product being palletised. There are many different types of gripper, and the type of gripper used will depend on your product. Some products are very straightforward to palletise, and can be simply picked and placed using a vacuum gripper. Other products such as bags/sacks will require a bag gripper to ensure that the bags are placed accurately to create a sable stack. For products such as open top trays, an underneath gripper will often be used to pick and place the product. Using the right gripper for the product will ensure the product is palletised neatly and consistently.
Pallet Wrapped As Product Is Palletised Where the product being palletised requires wrapping as it is palletised, an automated system will palletise directly onto a pallet placed on the wrapper turntable. This then allows the pallet to be wrapped, as often as is required whilst palletising, to ensure that the product is stacked neatly and securely on the pallet. It removes the need for human input and creates a consistency and reliability that is not possible when stacking by hand.
As you can see, if you have a dedicated operator palletising by hand, they can reliably create very neatly stacked pallets. However, with an automated system you are no longer relying on the operator’s ability, and the system will reliably and consistency create neatly stacked pallets 24/7.
If you would like to discuss your palletising application, feel free to give us a call on 01223 499488 or contact us at helpline@granta-automation.co.uk. We will also be very happy to arrange a free trial of your product on a palletiser if you require this.
There are several different types of palletiser grippers and each has its own uses and benefits. The type of gripper you will need to automatically palletise your product will depend on the products attributes. Below we have explained the most commonly used gripper types and the types of product they are most suited to. However, to be sure that the gripper specified for your application is appropriate for your product we would recommend you book a palletiser trial to try your product on the palletiser before you commit to the investment.
Foam Vacuum Gripper
Foam vacuum grippers are typically used where the product you are palletising has a flat top surface and the item can be vacuum picked from the top. The types of product that a vacuum gripper is typically used for include boxes, display boxes, cartons and some types of packed products and bags.
There are several different styles of vacuum gripper available, but the most commonly used one for palletising product is a flat foam head vacuum gripper.
A vacuum gripper can also be used to pick and place empty pallets onto the conveyor ready for palletising, and to pick and place cardboard slip sheets between layers.
Bag Gripper
A bag gripper is usually only used for bags and sacks of various sizes. The bag gripper will usually also be able to pick and place empty pallets.
A bag gripper has positioning pins, lifting pins and a centre clamp which provides extra support as the product is moved. Due to the unique way in which the gripper works this results in a very neatly stacked pallet.
Typically, when a bag gripper is used, the robot will need to pick off a purpose manufactured sack pick conveyor to allow the pins to wrap round under the bag before lifting. The gripper closes the positioning pins and lifting pins around the product and clamps the centre clamp as it lifts the product off the conveyor. Once the robot has moved the bag to the correct position for stacking, the lifting pins release and the positioning pins guide the bag into place.
Underneath Gripper
Underneath grippers are suitable for a wide variety of different applications and are often used where the product cannot be picked by a foam vacuum gripper due to the nature of the product. Product that usually require an underneath gripper include: open top plastic or cardboard crates, open top boxes, boxes that are not strong enough to be lifted with a vacuum gripper, shrink wrapped items such as packs of bottles, etc.
An underneath gripper has tines that slides underneath the product, and an arm that goes across the top of the item and clamps down onto it to hold it in place. Once the product has been placed in the desired location on the pallet, the top clamp is released and the gripper tines are withdrawn from under the product. An underneath gripper also has an integrated vacuum gripper that is used to pick and place empty pallets onto the conveyor, and also to pick and place slip sheets if they are required.
Parallel Gripper
A parallel gripper is usually only used for boxes, and other products that are regular in shape but are not suitable for vacuum gripping such as shrink-wrapped trays of goods.
A parallel gripper has two side plates that close parallel to each other onto the two sides of the product and then lift it. Once the product has been placed into the correct position on the pallet, the gripper then releases.
Row Gripper Option
The row gripping option extends the length of any of the grippers so it is able to pick and place multiple items at once. This increases the cycle speed and is typically used on high speed production lines. Depending on the stacking pattern bump turn conveyors may be required to orientate the product as it come off the production line before it is picked by the gripper.
With the speed of a row gripper palletising system, you will often be able to palletise different types of products off more than one line. A system like this can help to reduce your capital expenditure requirements as you will only require one palletising cell for multiple lines, rather than a palletising system for each production line.
Bespoke Gripper
A bespoke gripper would usually only be used when the product is not suited to being lifted by any of the above gripers. Items that may require a bespoke gripper include: drums, cans, bottles, irregular shaped items, large or heavy items, etc.
A bespoke gripper would also typically be designed to be able to pick and place empty pallets and to pick and place slip sheets as required.
If you would like to know more about which gripper will be best suited to your product and application, feel free to give us a call on 01223 499488 or contact us at helpline@granta-automation.co.uk. We will also be very happy to arrange a free trial of your product on a palletiser if you require this.
The typical payback time on a palletiser system can vary significantly between specific applications. This is due to the fact that calculating payback relates to the comparison between the cost of running your current palletising process, and what savings you will make once the new system is installed, versus the cost of installing and running an automated system. Automated palletising systems will also vary in cost due to the fact that some systems may be very simple such as a single pallet position robotic palletising cell, whereas others will be multi-faceted and have multiple robots palletising off multiple production lines with automatic pallet feeding conveyor systems. As a result, the payback time for each palletising application needs to calculated based on its own merits.
As with any type of capital investment, the shorter the time between when you part with your money, and the capital equipment is up and producing, the quicker the return on investment. This makes it important to include lead time and installation time in your payback calculations, as this can have a significant impact on the payback time. Systems that have a staged payment process throughout the project rather than an upfront payment scheme will enable you to spread the initial capital outlay over a longer period of time, and the time between full capital outlay and payback will be shortened. Also, a palletiser system that can be installed quickly on a short lead time, with minimal disruption to your current production process, will improve your payback period as the time between initial capital expenditure and production throughput will be shortened.
Typically, the payback period of a capital investment is often calculated as Cost of Investment ÷ Average Annual Cash Flow. In this instance, average annual cashflow relates to the savings made each month as a result of the capital investment. ie. If you spend £5,000 to install a capital item, and following install you make savings each month as a result of this investment of £100, it would take 4.2 years to reach the payback period for this investment. However, this is a very basic payback calculation, and doesn’t take into account all of the surrounding dependent factors that will be affected as a result of the capital investment, such as increased OEE, less downtime, greater production throughput, etc. Therefore, when making a significant capital investment, it is better to take more of a holistic view to calculating the return on investment, and include all of the related dependencies and how they will be affected when making your calculations. There are several free downloadable tools available to help you with these more complex payback calculations, and links to some of these are included below:
This calculator relates specifically to production/manufacturing environments, and includes all of the key factors you need to included when calculating payback for a palletising system. Along with the standard costs such as labour and maintenance costs, this calculator will also take into account production efficiency improvements, reduction in product defects, increased throughput, increased profits, etc, when calculating the payback time. This gives you a more comprehensive view of what the payback time is likely to be for a palletiser system.
This calculator combines many different factors that companies don’t typically look at when investing in capital items, but they do however have a significant impact on payback time. It includes items such admin cost savings, health & safety savings, reduction in repetitive strain injuries and the associated absences they can bring, increased sales, improved selling prices, increased market share; all of which will have an impact on the payback time, but are often overlooked when making payback calculations.
As we have mentioned earlier, the payback time for your specific palletiser application will be unique to your situation, but typically, as a rule of thumb, if you have the equivalent of one person employed full time for palletising, there is payback in less than 2 years.
Palletiser leasing is also another option to consider when calculating payback, as typically with leasing you don’t have to make any initial capital outlay for the project. You will only begin making payments against the project at the same time as you start realising the benefits of having the capital equipment installed. As an example, over the last few palletiser installations we have completed, with a 3 year lease scheme, our customers would make an average production cost saving of £63,063.60 per year after making the lease payments. These savings do not include the value of any production increase, which with a palletiser is typically at least 15%, and more commonly around 40%. They also don’t include any of the other benefits such as; reduced H&S claims, reduced HR, and boosted staff morale. Leasing is an attractive option where there is a good payback case for investing in an automated palletising system, but you don’t have the required capital available to invest.
If you would like any help on calculating the payback period for your specific application then please do get in touch on 01223 499488 or helpline@granta-automation.co.uk and we will be very happy to help.
