Robotic Bale Palletizing, Aluminum - BW Integrated Systems

BW Integrated Systems' client in the can manufacturing industry had a need to reduce their environmental impact. In doing so, they not only wanted to palletize recycled cans in bale form, they needed the ability to integrate a weigh scale into the cell to give them accurate pallet weights. With each bale weighing around 50 pounds, hand palletizing was not an option for them. They sought our expertise in robotic palletizing. The solution we created for them features a small-footprint robotic cell that is able to determine whether the bale of scrap aluminum is of brite cans or decorated. This system also included pallet strapping machines, which gave them the ability to automatically strap horizontally and vertically. The strapping of pallets of scrap aluminum bales was something this client had been doing manually in the past. This became a huge time-saver – allowing them to use their resources in other areas. Pallet labeling was another feature added to the project.

The beauty of aluminum is that it can be turned back into a can infinitely. With many can manufacturers hand-palletizing, the loads are typically not stacked very straight. Our solution creates better stacking which means they will transport better, resulting less spoilage.