A rotating robot palletising system is the latest development from Netherlands based Csi.

Serving six pick-points and place-points, the advantage of this design is that fewer robots are needed, resulting in reduced maintenance costs and required floor space. The first system has been installed at Unifoods in South Africa.

“This system is developed in a completely different way from previous systems,” says Csi project manager Marco Verhoef. “In the case of Unifoods, where the system must be able to handle the supply of 18 production lines, something like five robots would have been required in conventional layout, each being able to serve a maximum of four pick-and-place points.

“The system at Unifoods now consists of three robot cells, each serving six pick-points which rotate to a central loading and unloading station.”