Yaskawa Launches Latest ​​PL80 Robot Designed for Small Palletizing Tasks

Picking and palletizing are very common tasks that need to be completed in a warehouse or industrial facility. These tasks often require heavy lifting and moving of goods. In recent years, industrial automation companies have developed robots specifically for palletizing tasks such as these. Yaskawa is the latest company to release a new palletizing robot designed to promote warehouse automation. 

 

Yaskawa’s New PL80

There are four different sizes in the PL series, with the PL80 being the smallest of the group.

According to Yaskawa, the PL80 is a five-axis robot that excels at case palletizing, bag palletizing, de-palletizing, layer picking, and layer forming. The robot has a load capacity of 80-kg, making it useful for many different stacking tasks, and a repeatability of 0.03mm over its 3,291 mm vertical reach, and 2,061 mm horizontal reach.

 

Yaskawa’s new ​​PL80 robot. Image used courtesy of Yaskawa

 

Designed with performance in mind, the PL80 features fast axis speeds that help enhance precision in comparison to other more traditional systems. The wrist is designed to be IP67 rated, and the rest of the axes come standard with an IP54 rating.

The robot comes with a YRC1000 controller set to global standards that do not need a transformer if the input voltage is between the ranges of 380VAC and 480VAC. The cabinet is compact and has the dimensions 598 W x 490 H x 427 D mm. The included teach pendant is part of Yaskawa’s new lightweight design.

 

Yaskawa’s PalletSolver Software

The PL80 is compatible with Yaskawa’s new PalletSolver Software. The software aims to help with the palletizing process more efficiently and reduce downtime between product changes. 

The software hopes to create homogeneous palletizing possible with two things in mind:

• A user-friendly environment that makes integration and development easier and hopes to create a simple setup and configuration a reality.
• Create more uptime and throughput for systems with a user-friendly interface.

The software works with Yaskawa robots, like the PL80, to create ideal pallet configurations that help them stack and de-stack pallets in the most efficient manner possible. 

 

Yaskawa’s palletizing robot demonstrates its capabilities. Image used courtesy of Yaskawa

 

The software includes a drag and drop hot button to help users switch between an array of SKUs. The PalletSolver software has a scalable architecture and is designed to handle single and multiple work cells and single-line and complex multi-line palletizing.

The PalletSolver suite comes with two entities. The first is the PalletSolve PC program, an offline pattern generation tool that resides on a Windows PC. The second part is the PalletSolver-Engine which includes motion planning, I/O maps, and robot control programs that reside on the robot controller. 

 

Yaskawa’s palletizing robot demonstrates its capabilities in a warehouse. Image used courtesy of Yaskawa

 

Yaskawa hopes the system will create many key benefits, including:

• Pattern Generation Tools such as Snap, Placement Spread, Label Positioning, Pallet Overhang/Underhang, Auto Gaps, Centering, Height of Build, and Calculated Weight
• A unique user interface equipped with a guided pattern file generation steps
• 2D and 3D build pictures that are generated to help with dropbox recovery
• Export/import cell and gripper database that can be shared between projects
• Support for all common gripper types
• Import pallet patterns generated by TOPS or CAPE software
• A gripper zone configuration that is changeable for each cycle
• Support for multiple robotic cells

 

Yaskawa is hopeful that the new PL80 robot and the PalletSolver software will provide engineers with a unique combination that could increase palletizing efficiency and ease of use.