The large Polish brewery Lech Browary Wielkopolski is packing its bottles into cartons with two independently operating packing machines. Sometimes the beer cartons arrive irregularly on the two-lane conveyor belt to the palletizer. An ideal task for our carton distribution system. The reason for the irregular production flow on one of the two conveyors can be delays, short malfunctions or the complete standstill of one of the two packers. Unfortunately, the packers do not always run synchronously.

How our carton distribution system supports palletising

This asymmetry must be compensated for. Our systems always supply the palletiser with cartons in such a way that it continues to run as continuously as possible. The palletizer should not stop despite the uneven access to cartons on one conveyor belt instead of both. Thus, two Sortec carton distribution systems are installed on the two-lane conveyor behind the packers.

They distribute the cartons so that the palletising robot runs largely independent of the coveyor speed. Since it should also work independently of the single- or double-lane carton throughput, our distribution systems feed both lanes with beer cartons as evenly as possible. This is done by the systems arranged offset on both sides of the conveyor belts. This means that the beer cartons are either pushed from the right onto the left conveyor belt. Or vice versa, from the second system (at the back of the photo) from the left onto the right conveyor belt.

Carton separation with laterally offset sorting systems

For this purpose, each carton is detected with proven sensor technology (see photo above the belts). The Sortec rejection systems are programmed with an intelligent control system so that the palletising robot always receives the required number of cartons on both sides.

Gentle carton distribution

Regardless of the irregular product flow, every carton reaches the palletiser undamaged and aligned with the transport direction. Twisted cartons could cause damage, delays or even a complete production stop. At the same time, the Sortec distribution system supplies the palletiser with cartons even if there are no or too small gaps between the products on the conveyor belt. A special belt control makes this possible. An interesting variant of numerous distribution jobs.