Page 45 - FoodFocusThailand No.244 August 2026

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STORAGE, HANDLING & LOGISTICSORAGE, HANDLING & LOGISTICS

PALLETIZING ROBOTS:

END-OF-LINE AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY

IN THE 5.0 ERA

Imagine a few workers stationed at the end of a production line, lifting 10–20-kilogram boxes and stacking
hundreds of them onto pallets every hour. Although this task appears simple, it involves substantial hidden
costs, including the risk of repetitive strain injuries, employee turnover, and production-line bottlenecks.
Consequently, as food factories worldwide transition toward automation, palletizing has become one of the
first processes targeted for robotic solutions.

A robotic palletizing system is an automated workcell that The Background Behind Automated Palletizing
receives packaged goods, such as corrugated boxes, bags, Systems in Food Factories
sacks, or bundled bottles, from a conveyor system and stacks The primary driver for automated palletizing is labor
them onto pallets according to a predefined pallet pattern. The shortage. End-of-line manual box lifting is often considered
system consists of four main components: the robot itself, end- one of the most physically demanding positions in a food
of-arm tooling, the conveyor and pallet handling system, and factory because it involves heavy loads and challenging
control software that calculates the optimal placement position working environments, including freezing, hot, or humid
for each package. conditions. As a result, many newly hired workers leave
Palletizing robots are categorized into three main groups. within their first month.
First, 4- to 6-axis industrial robotic arms offer payload Occupational safety is another critical driver. Repetitive
capacities from dozens to hundreds of kilograms, ideal lifting combined with torso twisting increases musculoskeletal
for high-speed lines. Second, gantry robots move along disorder risks, particularly in the lower back and shoulders. To
overhead rails to maximize vertical space. Third, collaborative address this, the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation evaluates
robots (cobots), highly popular over the past five years, lifting risks based on weight, reach, height, twist angle,
operate safely alongside humans without safety fences by and task frequency—all inherent to palletizing. A study by
limiting force and speed per ISO/TS 15066. Cobots feature Gallagher and Heberger (2015) found that positioning a
simple installation, minimal footprints, and drag-and-drop pallet beside a conveyor generated spinal compressive loads
programming. Additionally, various end effectors are available, over 800 Newtons higher than end-of-line positioning. This
including vacuum cups, mechanical clamps, bag claws, and demonstrates how ergonomic data can guide automation
layer grippers, making appropriate gripper selection as critical decisions and help design safer manual tasks.
as choosing the robot itself. The third driver comes from changing business
According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) requirements. The number of stock-keeping units (SKUs)
World Robotics 2025 report, approximately 542,000 new continues to increase due to modern retail demands, including
industrial robots were installed globally in 2024, representing customized packaging sizes, promotional formats, and mixed
the second-highest annual installation level in history and pallets assembled according to individual branch orders.
increasing the global operational stock to more than 4.66 Managing this level of product variation through manual
million units. This growth trend is particularly evident in the food labor alone is becoming increasingly difficult. In contrast,
industry. The IFR reported that robot installations in the U.S. robotic systems can adapt to new requirements through
food sector surged by 30% in 2025 to approximately 3,000 units, software updates without major process modifications.
matching investment levels of metal and electronics industries For example, the ABB IRB 460, a 4-axis robot specifically
for the first time. Meanwhile, data from the Association for designed for palletizing applications, can achieve up to 2,190
Advancing Automation (A3) showed that robot orders from the cycles per hour when tested with a 60-kilogram payload,
North American food and consumer goods industries jumped making it suitable for high-speed production lines and heavy
by 65% in 2024, sharply contrasting with an otherwise stagnant bag-handling operations.
overall market.
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