Maximizing Robotic Tote Handling and Tote Palletizing with MESH

High-Speed Robotic Tote Handling and Tote Palletizing
tote palletizing and handling

Reusable plastic tote bins and trays are a mainstay in many fulfillment centers and product distribution centers.  Automatic handling of these totes and trays has many advantages and is proven to provide a good return on their investment.

MESH Automation specializes in the design and manufacture of equipment that enables e-commerce sites, fulfillment centers, and distribution centers to transition from manual tote operations to fully automate handling, stacking, destacking, labeling, and palletizing. The benefits range from minimizing risks for employees to improved material handling and reduced running costs.

There is no doubt that many industries including food and beverage, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, and even high-technology sectors can cut costs and increase their efficiency with robotic tote handling options.

Benefits of Robotic Tote Equipment

If you’re wondering whether it’s worth installing a MESH tote handling system, the first thing to do is consider the many benefits. The fact is that tote stacking, de-stacking, and palletizing are often done manually, but because totes have a rigid structure, automated equipment can be used very easily to improve labor utilization. Experience matters in tote handling system design. MESH leverages its vast experience in robotics to provide competitive robotic tote/tray stacking, destacking, and palletizing systems.

Denesting certain totes and trays is difficult and often results in small injuries to your operators.  Automatic systems for denesting/destacking totes and trays by MESH will solve those problems. Automation is ideal for most tote operations and can provide reliable and short returns on investment due to the repetitive nature of the tasks, ergonomic dangers to humans (weight and motion), forklift dangers, and sometimes seasonal labor availability issues. System design needs to be simple so maintenance can be easy to understand.  Operator functions to unjam or clean up the area need to be taken into consideration, in addition to an intuitive operator interface or HMI.  MESH has this experience and it shows in our equipment ruggedness and simplicity.

Tote labeling automation is paramount to a well-designed system.  MESH can even offer a reusable laser write/erase label system to eliminate the cleaning process in most operations.

Tote Palletizing FAQ

What are the key reasons companies choose automatic tote and tray handling systems?What is the difference between a tote stacker and tote palletizer?
Labor issues are at the forefront of most automation decisions.  Most manual tote handling jobs are high speed, resulting in repetitive motion injuries and undesirable (hard-to-find workers). Human interaction with forklifts is an accident waiting to happen.  Robots and other automation along the packaging line eliminate these labor issues forever.
Automated tote and tray stackers are for single columns of totes or trays. On reusable systems, totes are typically columnar stacked at the end of their production cycle. Automatic palletizers will stack many totes per layer with multiple layers tall on a pallet or sleigh board. Full pallets of totes or trays are typically the finished goods product designed for the internal or external customer. Tote or tray stackers can use conventional automation techniques in addition to robotics. Tote or tray palletizers are best suited for robotic-only systems.
Pre Engineered Palletizing & Material Handling Solutions
Palletizing Line Controller for Automated Systems by MESH Automation

MACControl

The MACControl is a highly functional and flexible robot cell controller with standard features and component specifications that rival today’s best industrial control systems.

Mixed Load Palletizing System

MACPal OF

The MACPal “OF”–  is designed for robotic palletizing of mixed cases.

IRB 640 palletizer robot

MACPal

The MACPal is designed for robotic palletizing of cases, totes or bags.

Palletizing Line Controller for Automated Systems by MESH Automation

MACControl

The MACControl is a highly functional and flexible robot cell controller with standard features and component specifications that rival today’s best industrial control systems.

MACPac

The MACPac (MESH Automation Cell for case opening and packing) is a professional-grade, pre-engineered, robotics-based flexible automation cell.