How Ornua Eliminated Palletizing Injuries Using Robotiq’s Palletizing System In One Day

Ornua is a major player in the dairy industry. Based in Ireland, this dairy cooperative produces all kinds of cheese, butter, and packaged dairy products.

But all those boxes of dairy need to be palletized at the end of the line.

As most businesses dealing with heavy products, palletizing was a significant bottleneck in more ways than one.

Employees were constantly manually lifting products weighing 6 to 12 kg, plus massive 10 kg cheese blocks.

The strain and injury risks? Real and ever-present. If a staff member is too fatigued or has sustained a muscle injury, they wouldn’t be able to support the process the next day.

If someone quits out of the blue, it puts a strain on the palletizing line, which was strained enough as it is. 

It was time to automate. And… After finding a solution from Robotiq based on UR20 cobot from Universal Robots, Ornua made dramatic changes to their operations.

Repetitive Strain Injury Risk Was a No-Go

Manual palletizing drained energy fast. Operators bent, lifted, and twisted nonstop.

Add labor shortages to the mix, and pallets started piling up.

Something had to change… fast.

Not only is it a risk of work injury, but it wastes staff talents and makes it difficult to retain employees or hire new ones. It became evident to Ornua… It was time to help transition some of their staff to more value-adding roles.

Looking For a Solution… And Why A Cobot? 

Once they were ready, Ornua went shopping for automation.

First stop? Traditional robot cells. Big cages, big budgets, insufficient flexibility. But Ornua needed eyes on dairy quality and human interaction.

So that was a hard pass.

But when they got in touch with RARUK and Robotiq… Things started moving in the right direction.

Robotiq’s PE20 palletizing cell is built around the Universal Robots’ UR20 cobot and uses a highly intuitive Robotiq software interface, allowing them to tick all the boxes:

• 20 kg (44.1 lbs) payload, 1.75 m (68.9 in) reach. Big enough for 12 kg cartons and 10 kg cheese blocks.

• No fencing. Operators can still walk right up, inspect, and adjust as needed..

• Drag-and-drop setup. Robotiq’s Material Handling Copilot turns “write code” into “type the box size, choose a pattern, press Start.”

• Schmalz’s FXCB area gripper allows Ornua to grip products with the cobot across their surface area seamlessly.

“Having a solution like we have, it means having a visual set up, so you don't need to program lines of code. You will just open the palletizing interface, enter your box dimension and weight and the pattern, and then you just press start, and the robot will do everything automatically,” noted Étienne Samson, Robotics Applications Director at Robotiq.

A Well-Deserved Applause

Moments after installation, the UR20 finished its first full pallet. The team actually applauded.

Being freed from the strenuous and continuous effort of palletizing was a pure relief, while it also improved palletizing effectiveness.

• 0 work-related palletizing injuries since launch.

• Productivity is up, and pallets roll out faster and more consistently.

• Labor freed for inspections, line changeovers, and continuous-improvement projects.

• Future-ready mindset. After this cobot, the business is wide-open to more automation.

Learn more about the successful deployment of Robotiq’s PE20 at Ornua using the links below:

• Case Study Ornua - Robotiq

• UR20 Frees Up Employees from Ergonomic Palletizing Tasks

• Handling Sets FXCB > Area Gripping Systems and End Effectors | Schmalz

Enjoy your week!

The Cobot Spotlight Team