With a globally unrivaled portfolio of palletizing robots, KUKA stacks up well against the competition

KUKA offers some of the fastest palletizing robots on the market in a unique variety of types. With payload capacities of 40 to 1,300 kg, these robots offer excellence in the food industry's most demanding palletizing and depalletizing tasks.

19 November 2021

Small or large, light or heavy, individual products or complete layers: The palletizing robots from automation specialist KUKA ensure maximum dynamic performance, even with a full payload. With its palletizing portfolio, KUKA covers the payload range from 40 to 1,300 kg and offers reaches of up to 3,601 mm – the broadest portfolio on the market.

Future-oriented automation: quickly getting to grips

KUKA designs each individual robot type for demanding palletizing and depalletizing tasks. For businesses, this means short cycle times and increased throughput, combined with low space requirements and high cost effectiveness. The smallest power pack among the KUKA palletizing robots, the KR 40 PA, offers a reach of 2,091 mm. Its 4-axis kinematic system stacks pallets to a height of 1.6 m – with a working speed of up to 56 cycles per minute.

The small footprint of the KR 40 PA minimizes interference contour

Palletizing food products — and in ice-cold extremes

The KR QUANTEC PA also scores high marks for speed, enabling the robot type to achieve 28.3 cycles per minute with a payload of 240 kg. The recently updated KR QUANTEC PA family now operates with the KR C5 controller, which can achieve energy savings of more than 30% compared to its predecessor. The KR QUANTEC PA Arctic takes on a special role: it easily withstands even ice-cold temperatures down to -30° C, making it the only robot on the market that can handle this ambient temperature without a robot arm heater.

Made for ice-cold extremes: The KR QUANTEC PA Arctic (left) withstands temperatures down to -30 °C

“The KR QUANTEC PA is also available in the variant with food-compatible NSF H1 lubricants ("Hygienic Oil") in all axes,” said Michael Laub, Product Manager at KUKA. “The robot thus meets the high hygiene requirements of the food industry in the secondary sector.” In the heavy-duty category as well, KUKA offers robots with high working speed.

The KR QUANTEC PA HO energy supply system is equipped with NSF H1 cable grease

Making light work of heavy tasks – and more

The hollow-wrist design of the KR 300-2 PA, KR 470-2 PA and the KR 700 PA, with an opening that measures an unbeatable 60 mm, allows for space-saving cell concepts. The palletizing robots thus handle heavy payloads at high speed – and benefit from extremely long maintenance intervals. “Our greatest power pack is the KR titan PA,” explained Michael Laub. “With a reach of up to 3,601 millimeters, it can lift well over a ton and place the load exactly at the desired target position.” No other robot in the world offers a comparable ratio of dead weight to payload.

The KR 700 PA stacks pallets higher than all others

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KUKA.PickControl is the robot-based software for conveyor tracking with integrated image processing

Robot and software: an unbeatable team

KUKA takes a holistic approach to automation solutions and offers companies the right technology packages for every task and every robot. For example, KUKA.PickControl can be used wherever multiple robots need to handle fast pick-and-place tasks on multiple assembly lines. Standardized PLC interfaces simplify configuration and start-up in such cases. The innovative KUKA.PalletTech software palletizes unmixed articles. No need for extensive prior knowledge is required to configure and modify the layer sequence (e.g. pallet, product, slipsheet, product) and the patterns within the layers.

Together with the KUKA_3D Perception sensor, the KUKA.PerceptionTech software ensures clear insights during depalletizing. It enables the robot to perceive its surroundings and to pick up and position objects independently. “No matter which palletizing robot customers choose – KUKA has the matching system components,” said Michael Laub in conclusion. “And thanks to a near-100% availability, KUKA robots make automation processes more calculable than ever before.”