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Application

Palletizing & Depalletizing

Robot-assisted stacking and unstacking of boxes, sacks or workpieces — cobot cell up to ~25 kg, gantry solution for higher payloads and cycle rates.

Application

What is palletizing?

Palletizing — stacking boxes, sacks, trays or workpieces on a pallet in a defined pattern — is one of the most ergonomically demanding tasks in production and logistics. Around 30 % of all back injuries in production and warehousing are linked to manual palletizing, and the job is regarded as unattractive and hard to staff. Depalletizing (the reverse process: unloading a pallet) has the same fundamental issue.

Automated palletizing solves several problems at once: ergonomics, staff shortages, consistency of stacking patterns, 24/7 availability and complete documentation of the orders processed.

Three basic variants — depending on payload, cycle rate and reach

We build palletizing cells in three fundamentally different configurations. The choice comes down to three questions: weight per object? Boxes per hour? Stack height and number of pallets?

1. Cobot variant — up to approx. 25 kg payload (including gripper), 8-14 cycles/minute (~480-840 boxes/h). Fast set-up, no safety fence required, ideal for lot-size-one shops, smaller batches and flexible relocations. Typical payback 12-18 months.
Robot selection: we integrate all cobots available on the market — Universal Robots (UR20, UR30), FANUC CRX-25iA, JAKA, Doosan, Techman and others. Our own NEXOS.Nova can be used as well. The choice depends on payload, reach, price and customer preference.
2. Classical industrial robot — 50-200 kg payload, 15-25 cycles/minute, high reach (up to 3.5 m floor-standing). Safety enclosure with light curtain or safety laser scanner required. For consistently high volumes with medium to heavy payload. Typical payback 2-3 years.
Robot selection: we work with the established brands FANUC, KUKA, ABB, Yaskawa and Kawasaki — depending on the requirement profile and customer preference.
3. Gantry solution — NEXOS.Motion gantry with a mounted robot (cobot or industrial robot). Extremely large reach (several metres), tending of multiple pallet positions from one cell, very high stacks (2.5 m+). Ideal for distribution centres, mixed-pallet picking or applications with a very wide infeed configuration. Payback depends on scope, typically 2-4 years.

Typical applications

  • End-of-line palletizing after a packaging machine (boxes, trays, bundles)
  • Sack palletizing in the building-materials, chemicals and food industries
  • Moulded-part palletizing after injection moulding or forming
  • Mixed-pallet picking in the distribution centre (different SKUs on one pallet)
  • Depalletizing of incoming goods: goods receipt, feeding to production lines
  • Drum and canister handling in chemicals/pharma

The NEXOS configuration

  • Robot — NEXOS.Nova as the cobot for the light variant, or an industrial robot in the NEXOS.Motion gantry for heavy and fast applications.
  • End-of-arm tool (EOAT) — vacuum gripper (standard case for boxes), form-fit gripper for sacks, clamp gripper for trays. Multi-gripper for parallel handling of several objects.
  • Infeed conveyor with positioning sensors (photo sensor or camera) for a defined hand-over.
  • One or two pallet stations — with two stations the full pallet can be picked up while the second one is being filled (no cycle down-time).
  • Pattern software for flexible stacking patterns — standard patterns (interlocked, column-stacked) and custom patterns for mixed boxes.
  • Pallet handling via HERROX.250 — provide empty pallets, move full pallets to goods issue or the truck staging area. Without a forklift driver.
  • NEXOS.Protec enclosure with light curtain and safety-rated doors for the industrial-robot variant.

Sequence of a typical cell

  1. Box arrives on the infeed conveyor, is positioned by a sensor and, if applicable, identified by camera (SKU detection for mixed load)
  2. Robot picks the box with a vacuum or form-fit gripper
  3. Positions it according to the calculated pattern on the pallet — the pattern software knows pallet dimensions, box sizes, stability rules
  4. Place, release vacuum, return to pick position
  5. Once the stacking pattern is complete: signal to HERROX.250, pick up the full pallet; feed an empty one
  6. Optional: strapping and wrapping in-line by downstream machines
  7. Order confirmation to ERP/WMS with time stamp and SKU log

Why it pays off

Market data (2026) for comparable palletizing cells:

  • Cobot cell: investment 60,000-160,000 €, payback 12-18 months in two-shift operation
  • Industrial-robot gantry: investment from 175,000 €, payback 2-3 years, but 3x higher throughput
  • Manual palletizing: per full-time employee about 55,000-75,000 € fully loaded annual cost; typically 2-3 people per shift on one line
  • Side effects: ergonomic relief, reduced sick leave, uniform stacking quality, fewer pallet damages

The economic lever is rarely staff savings alone — rather the reliable 24/7 output and the removal of a bottleneck that was previously plugged with temporary staff or overtime.

Scalability

  • Stage 1 — single cobot cell: one NEXOS.Nova cell at the end of the packaging line. Starting point for first-time automators.
  • Stage 2 — two pallet stations: no cycle loss during pallet swap, throughput closer to industrial-robot level.
  • Stage 3 — gantry solution: switch to NEXOS.Motion gantry with industrial robot when volumes are permanently >800 boxes/h.
  • Stage 4 — automated pallet transport: a HERROX.250 fleet handles in- and outbound logistics — the palletizing cell is never blocked by a missing empty pallet or a full one waiting to be picked up.
  • Stage 5 — connected palletizing logistics: integration with NEXOS.DSP for palletizing OEE, with WMS/ERP for order status, with TMS for loading.

Expansion options

  • Vision system for mixed-load palletizing: SKU detection at the infeed, dynamic pattern calculation
  • Interlayer handling: automatic insertion of cardboard interlayers between rows for stability
  • In-line weighing: weight check per box, ejection on deviation
  • Strapping and wrapping in-line: downstream strapping and stretch-wrap machines from the NEXOS.MAX catalogue
  • Labelling and marking module at the pallet outfeed
  • Digital twin via NEXOS.XR: test new stacking patterns virtually before they run in production

Key sizing parameters

What you should have on hand for a solid quotation:

  • Object weight per box/sack (min., typical, max.) — decides cobot vs. industrial robot
  • Object dimensions and material (cardboard, film, plastic, metal) — determines gripper selection
  • Cycle rate in boxes/hour — decides cell design and single/double pallet
  • Pallet size and type (Euro pallet 800x1200, industrial pallet 1000x1200, half pallet, custom)
  • Max. stack height — cobot ~1.7 m, gantry 2.4 m+
  • Number of SKUs on one pallet (single-SKU vs. mixed pallet)
  • Available floor space and integration with existing conveyors

Components

  • NEXOS.Nova (up to ~25 kg / 10 cpm) or industrial robot in the NEXOS.Motion gantry (up to 100+ kg / 20+ cpm)
  • NEXOS.Cube (cobot variant) or free-standing NEXOS.Motion gantry
  • Vacuum, form-fit or clamp gripper (EOAT)
  • Infeed conveyor, one or two pallet stations
  • Pallet handling via HERROX.250 (empty pallets in, full pallets out)
  • NEXOS.Protec enclosure with light curtain in the industrial-robot variant
This application is a standard concept. Detailed sizing and quotation are handled individually — we build the exact configuration from our components that fits your application.
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