Millions of cans of, among other things, white beans in tomato sauce arrive by container at this distribution center. Loose cans, unsealed, in cardboard trays that are set on pallets and wrapped one by one. Heavy, monotonous and unpleasant work for which it is difficult to find people. There are also trays that do arrive on pallets but that have to be re-stacked to a different pallet size. Again, lots of work but few available workers willing to do this work.
A year ago, in 2021, Copal installed the first installation where trays with cans are unloaded, palletized and wrapped (video).
Meanwhile, a second, parallel, line is already in place so that two containers can be unloaded, palletized and wrapped simultaneously (video).
However, one challenge remained: what do we do with the trays that have to be stacked on a different pallet size? For this Copal had an innovative solution as well.
A complete layer of trays with cans is removed from a pallet, after which the trays are singulated and re-stacked. Instead of 8 people, there are now two forklift trucks busy removing the full pallets (video).
A huge saving in labor costs and almost a doubling in capacity.
The videos can also be seen here:
www.vimeo.com/containerunloading/trays
www.vimeo.com/containerunloading/trays2
www.vimeo.com/containerunloading/traydepal
Copal Handling Systems
Goorsestraat 9
7041 GA ’s-Heerenberg
The Netherlands
info@copalgroup.com