Palletizing Cobot Handles Up To 14 Cases Per Minute For a Whole Grain Manufacturer

Bob’s Red Mill is an employee-owned, Milwaukie-based business with a long history. They’ve been milling and providing whole-grain cereals since 1978, growing to a 700+ worker business with over 200 products.

But they set a new goal: to double the number of people enjoying their cereals by 2030.

That kind of ambition must be matched with exceptional automation systems, which is precisely what they did for their palletizing automation.

Traditional robots weren’t suitable for the smaller lines at Bob’s Red Mill, so they tried to turn to cobots. However, it was only after Universal Robots launched the UR20 cobot that Bob’s Red Mill's operational needs could be met.

After installing the UR20-based turn-key cobot palletizer miniPAL® 20 from Universal Robot’s partner Columbia/Okura, they were able to 2X their palletizing capacity, eliminate manual box palletizing, and free up their staff for more important tasks.

Robots are nothing new for Bob’s Red Mill. They’ve been good friends with traditional robotics for a while.

However, you can’t use traditional robots for all palletizing, especially not if human proximity is a factor.

So, they figured they’d turn to cobots. But this too posed a challenge. At the time, Bob’s Red Mill couldn’t find a cobot on the market with sufficient reach, payload, and speed. 

One day, Nick heard from Universal Robots’ partner, Columbia/Okura, that they were working on something new.

Columbia/Okura incorporated Universal Robots' UR20 cobot into its turnkey palletizer, the miniPAL® 20. Since the UR20 has a high reach, Bob’s Red Mill was interested.

“We had already worked with Bob’s Red Mill, deploying larger robots, and knew the UR20 would be a perfect fit for their smaller cells,” said Parker Morris-Pinson from Columbia/Okura. 

And now, we are entering the solution stage. This is why it’s important to stay up to date on upcoming new cobot tech. Even if something didn’t work for your business before, one new product on the market could double your efforts, as it did for Bob’s Red Mill.

How miniPAL® 20 Works At Bob’s Red Mill

The miniPAL® 20 is a turnkey solution. So, the system includes:

• The UR20 cobot arm

• Safety area scanners (to slow down the cobot if a human enters it)

• Radar

• Guarding

• Pallet jack pockets

• PIAB’s CPT vacuum gripper

• PALLY, a palletizing software from Rocketfarm.

Cobots generally don’t need guarding, but since they wanted more speed, it was necessary. The cobot is caged from three sides and moves at 2.5m/s. However, if a human or a forklift enters the scanned area, the speed drops to just 25cm/s (about 10inch/s). And in case of a collision with a cobot, it stops immediately.

PALLY, a teach-pendant software, handles the palletizing organization. It’s a no-code software optimized for use with UR cobots.

“There's a couple of things to learn in terms of pallet pattern design, box sizes, and layouts, but it's pretty simple and easy to operate,” said Parker.

Bob’s Red Mill staff needed just 45-60 minutes to learn how to use PALLY in multiple scenarios, allowing them to get up and running quickly.

The Results: miniPAL® 20 Doubles The Palletizing Capacity

Bob’s Red Mill went from 7-8 cases/minute to the 14 cases/minute capacity with the miniPAL® 20.

“Our current production requires 7-8 cases per minute, but we are aiming for a 10-12 case rate, so with 14 cases per minute capacity, we can also account for the time it takes to add slip sheets in between each layer and allow the cobot to catch up if needed,” said Nick. 

And those slip sheets… Cobot adds them too.

UR20’s payload capacity and the extended Cobot Palletizing Tool by PIAB allow them to double-pick boxes, speed up the process, and increase their productivity.

And UR20’s reach eliminated the need for the 7th axis (rising vertically), further speeding up the process compared to smaller robotics, which is important since their pallets are taller than most. 

The miniPAL® 20 has also freed up 4 employees from this tedious, repetitive task.

“Instead of stacking pallets all day long, they can now focus on more value-added tasks, such as quality inspection, instead of something that’s boring,” - Nick Chow.

Learn more about all businesses involved in Bob’s Red Mill's success and their cobot solutions below:

• UR20 Cobot Enables New Palletizing Opportunity at Bob’s Red Mill

• UR20 Cobot Enables New Palletizing Opportunity

• Pally Powered by Rocketfarm

• PIAB - Cobot Palletizing Tool (CPT)

Enjoy your week!

The Cobot Spotlight Team