Cases, cartons and trays
Vacuum, clamp or support tooling selected around board strength, openings, labels and retail-ready surfaces.
Explore box palletising
Food and drink end-of-line automation
Food and beverage palletising systems built around packs, hygiene and production changeovers.
Automate palletising for cases, trays, sacks, bottles, cans, jars and shrink-wrapped collations with a cell designed around the actual product matrix, environment, cleaning method and upstream packaging line.
Quick answer
A food or beverage palletiser must protect the saleable pack while meeting hygiene, changeover and line-output requirements.
Start with every case, tray, sack, bottle or collation to be handled; the required rate by format; pallet and layer-sheet rules; cleaning regime; production zone; and interfaces to packers, labellers, checkweighers, wrappers or warehouse conveyors.
Pack formats
One engineering route for different packaged products.
Bottles, cans and jars
Individual, row, tray or layer handling coordinated with collation stability and pallet pattern.
Explore bottle palletisingIngredient and product sacks
Bag conditioning, shaping, support and interlocking patterns for stable finished loads.
Explore bag palletisingHygiene and environment
Specify the actual production zone and cleaning method.
“Food grade” is not a complete specification. Equipment choices depend on whether the cell is outside the exposed-product area or within a controlled zone, plus temperature, condensation, dust, cleaning chemicals, hose-down practice and material restrictions.
- Production-zone and hygiene classification agreed
- Dry clean, wipe-down or washdown method defined
- Tool contact materials and lubricant requirements identified
- Access for inspection, cleaning and maintenance included
- Allergen, product-change and line-clearance workflow considered
Production integration
Connect packaging output to a controlled finished pallet.
Product identification
Recipe, line source, barcode or upstream signals identify the correct handling and pallet destination.
Quality checks
Interfaces can include product detection, checkweighing, label status and rejected-pack routing.
Load finishing
Layer sheets, top frames, stretch wrapping and pallet labelling coordinated in the full line scope.
Traceable recipes
Access-controlled HMI selection reduces manual setup and records the active production format.
Related palletising guidance
Continue planning your system.
Frequently asked questions
Food and beverage palletising questions, answered.
What food and beverage products can a robot palletise?
Typical packaged products include sealed cases, trays, cartons, sacks, bottles, cans, jars and shrink-wrapped collations. The product, primary packaging and pallet stability must be assessed together.
Can a palletiser work in a chilled or high-care area?
Potentially, but robot, tooling, conveyors, materials, electrical equipment and cleaning access must match the specified temperature, hygiene zone and washdown or cleaning regime. The environmental requirement should be defined at the start.
Can one cell handle several pack formats?
Often yes. Recipe control can coordinate guides, pick quantity, tool settings and pallet pattern for compatible formats. Product trials establish the practical range and whether change parts or additional tooling are required.
Can pallet labels, checkweighers or wrappers be integrated?
Yes. The palletising cell can exchange signals and data with upstream packaging machinery and downstream checkweighing, print-and-apply labelling, stretch wrapping, conveying or warehouse handling where these interfaces are included in scope.
How do you avoid damaging retail-ready packaging?
Tool contact, gripping force, support, acceleration and release are assessed on representative products. Trials should include weaker board, shrink wrap, labels and the most damage-sensitive approved pack.