Case study: Stable and safe palletising without plastic film

In our series on Stabilising products on the pallet using industrial adhesives, we bring you another case study from abroad.

The company that decided to use adhesive instead of film is UFA AG - a leading Swiss producer of animal feed. It even eliminated its dependence on packaging film entirely. The animal feed is packed into bags, which are palletised by the fully automatic AntiSlip system.

"We first used palletising with hot melt adhesive back in 2008. When we were deciding in 2018 which stabilisation system to use on our new production line in Sursee, the decision clearly fell on a hot melt adhesive system. We had already found that a stretch film solution requires more effort, more space and, with an annual output of 25,000 pallets, also higher material costs," says Urs Steiner, head of production at UFA. "Our customers already have to process a large quantity of empty feed bags, and we are glad that we do not additionally burden them with plastic film," he adds.

In the new plant, 500 feed bags are filled every hour and dispatched to customers. Two spray application heads then apply a total of 4 rows of hot melt adhesive to each bag without contact. The heads apply the adhesive in a spiral, thereby achieving a coating application. A robot then stacks the bags onto the pallet in rows of 3. Once 2 layers have been stacked, they are briefly compressed by means of a lift. This increases the adhesion of the adhesive between the layers and ensures safety during transport. Here too, the application system detects on its own when to skip a dose of adhesive.

A few months after implementing the stabilisation system, UFA AG developed a better way of filling the bags. This solution made it possible to place 10 layers of bags on a single pallet instead of the previous 8, which represented a further logistical advantage. However, it required adjustments to the configuration of the palletising system and the selection of more suitable adhesive application heads. "Thanks to the high degree of backward compatibility and the modular design of Robatech systems, there was no problem replacing the application heads with new ones. In addition to meeting our stabilisation requirements, they are also safer and more energy-efficient thanks to their thermal insulation," Steiner describes the replacement process.

Reliable adhesive application quality is crucial both for safe palletising and for easy depalletising. The bags should reach the customer undamaged, and removing them from the pallet should not require any great effort. Steiner sums up the implementation as follows: "We are satisfied with the solution of stabilising products on the pallet using hot melt adhesive. It is an excellent solution for us, for our customers and for the environment."

You can see detailed footage from the production in the attached video.

Source: Robatech AG