Depalletising and packaging lines for door leaves and frames

A linear solution of two packaging lines for furniture manufacturers, consisting of a main line for automatic depalletization, packaging and final palletization of door leaves, complemented by a smaller semi-automated solution for packaging of door frames.

LINES FOR DEPALLETIZATION, PACKING AND PALLETIZATION OF DOOR LEAVES AND PACKING OF DOOR FRAMES

Project: Automation of door leaf and door frame packaging
Term: 2022

REQUEST

The project was commissioned by a manufacturer in the woodworking industry, which, in the context of constantly increasing demand and expanding production, decided to speed up the packaging process of one of its main products - door leaves - and at the same time to innovate the packaging of door frames.

Besides speeding up the entire packaging process, the aim of the project was mainly to automate the packaging of door leaves - from automated removal of the leaves from pallets and insertion into the line, through automated wrapping in bubble wrap and wrapping the entire product with stretch film, to automatic re-palletization on the output pallet. Both packaging lines are independent of each other, while the door frame packaging line is only semi-automatic due to the insertion of various fasteners and instructional materials.

OUR SOLUTION

Line for automatic packing of door leaves

Line configuration:

The workflow starts with the removal of the door leaf from the input pallet, carried out by a bridge manipulator with a three-axis gripper with mechanical clamps and suction cups, complemented by an integrated vision system capable of detecting the exact position of the door leaves even in the case of high-gloss coating
The door leaves are then first moved by conveyor belt to the lifting conveyor deck, where operators install protective elements such as protective plastic corners and cardboard cover strips.
The conveyor lifting deck for the installation of protective elements is also used for the insertion of oversized parts if they need to be packed. The packing of oversized parts is carried out in manually triggered mode.
Subsequently, the parts are first wrapped in protective bubble wrap and then tightly wrapped with stretch film using a horizontal wrapping machine.
At the end of the procedure, the packed door leaves are automatically removed and placed on the output pallet by means of a bridge manipulator.
In the case of oversized parts, these packaged parts are exported to a run-out conveyor belt, where they are removed by the operator and placed on a special pallet.

Line for semi-automatic door frame packaging

Line configuration:

The door frame packing line is a semi-automated solution due to the necessity of inserting various additional elements into the whole packing.
The packaging process is thus started manually by an operator who first places all parts of the door frames on the conveyor belt, adds the necessary small components and installation guidelines and then starts the packaging process.
The next stage of the packaging process is automated, the entire set of frames with components is moved along a conveyor belt to a horizontal wrapping device, where the entire assembly is pulled down and wrapped in protective stretch film. A push bar is then placed at the end of the exporting conveyor belt to move the wrapped component from the conveyor belt to the final accumulation roller conveyor. From here it is picked up by the operator and placed on the output pallet.

Basic layout:

1 – Input belt conveyor
2 – Horizontal wrapping machine
3 – Idle accumulation roller conveyor
4 – Output belt conveyor with pressure bar

ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS

An alternative solution for the door leaf packing line is the possibility of using multi-axis robotic arms for depalletizing unpacked door leaves and then also for the final palletization of packed door leaves on an export pallet. In the case of this robotic variant, the vision system for the recognition of the door leaves placement and orientation is located on the robot arm.
Another additional element can be for instance a label printer with automated sticking of labels on the final packaging.

An alternative solution for the door frame wrapping line is to integrate a bubble wrapping machine before the horizontal stretch wrapping process. This alternative will achieve a higher quality of protection of the door frame packaging in terms of resistance to mechanical damage during handling and transport.