Success Story Shows How Manufacturer Improved Safety and Efficiency

Oct. 4, 2010 - PRLog -- Ashland, VA — A petroleum refinery improved the palletization process by automating with a robot and conveyors, as mentioned in Flexicell’s recently released success story found on their website at www.flexicell.com/success-stories. The palletizing (www.flexicell.com/palletizing/index.html) robot has proven to be more efficient than their prior method while keeping production flexible. The new palletizer also eliminated the threat of injury from palletizing for the manufacturer’s employees.

One of the greatest challenges that the petroleum refinery faced was the need to increase production speeds to match demand for their products without losing flexibility.  The other challenge the company was struggling with was the handling of heavy product which could weigh up to 45 pounds. The weight made palletizing difficult due to the potential for injury to their employees.

To meet their objectives, the manufacturer turned to Flexicell, Inc. They were to develop a solution that would be capable of handling both 20-liter plastic pails and various cases. To achieve this, Flexicell developed a sophisticated end of arm tooling for the robot. They also installed conveyors to bring the cases and pails to the robotic cell from the production lines, and heavy drag-chain conveyors for moving pallet loads. An automated stretch wrapper was integrated to reduce manual handling of loaded pallets. By installing the robot, conveyors, and stretch wrapper as one system, Flexicell provided a seamless palletizing process automated from start to finish.

The system has also exceeded the company’s initial expectations in performance and reliability. To read the success story and learn more about robotic palletizing, please visit www.flexicell.com/success-stories.

About Flexicell, Inc.
Flexicell, Inc., is a leading provider of robotic case packers, robotic palletizers, and material handling solutions with vision-guided pick and place. They have been providing innovative end of line automation to North American manufacturers since 1992. For more information, call (877) 688-3539 or visit http://www.flexicell.com. Follow us on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/companies/flexicell), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/flexicell), or Twitter (www.twitter.com/flexicellinc).