Automatic cardboard tray destacker for cardboard factories, paper mills, pallet and cardboard product manufacturers, cardboard packing and packaging companies
The cardboard trays, which are of multiple sizes, shapes and thicknesses and packed in stacks on pallets, are unstacked individually and transferred to a surrounding assembly line.
This fully automated unit is controlled by a central PLC operated via a digital screen. Without the need for additional adjustment, it can also:
- Unstack different-sized cardboard trays at a maximum rate of 15 seconds
- Manipulate porous (not airtight) cardboard trays
- Ensure the correct routing of the cardboard trays at the entrance of the assembly and production line
- Perform the unstacking operation independently while ensuring that operators can work in safety in the same environment
- Be installed into existing, extremely small spaces
It is composed of:
- A handling device for the individual unstacking of cardboard trays
- A dual-belt conveyor system (a belt conveyor and a polycord conveyor), on two levels, which performs a longitudinal shift and a transverse shift of the cardboard tray in a chain ; this technical solution can be used to correctly and very easily position the cardboard trays in the same place at the entry of the assembly and production line, regardless of their size, without needing additional or specific adjustments
The gripper head mounted on the gantry is equipped with a 90° pivoting base to ensure it can handle all types of cardboard, whatever the orientation of the pallets and the incoming boxes.
This can vary in accordance with the diagrams below :
- Double pallet (2 stacks of cardboard trays on the same pallet): long length perpendicular to the long length of the input conveyors
- Standard pallet: long length parallel to the long length of the input conveyors
The cardboard tray depalletisation cycle is controlled by laser technology. This technology is used to optimise the movement speeds of the handling device at each phase, regardless of the size and configuration of the cardboard trays on the pallet.
For small production runs or to feed in extra-large or non-standard cardboard trays, the unit has a function which disables the gripping system, enabling the cardboard
trays to be loaded manually via a secure hatch at the entrance to the dual-belt conveyor.
The destacking unit can be equipped with the following options :
- Motorised conveyors at the entrance constituting a buffer stock of pallets of cardboard trays ; these conveyors can be fed manually or automatically via a small logistics train
- A motorised conveyor to the right of the handling area under the gripper ; this self-centring conveyor is equipped with a pallet centring system to the right of the gripper ; the centring system is compatible with all sizes of pallet
- A motorised conveyor at the exit to remove empty pallets
The conveyor unit has a modular, adaptable, compact and versatile design.
TCM - THOMAS CONSTRUCTIONS MECANIQUES oversees the entire industrialisation process for the unit, incorporating all the design, manufacturing and development phases.