The Future of Conveyor Technologies and Robotic Palletizing Strategies

Automated conveyor modules like the ModSort® Divert & Transfer Module can eliminate the need for manual sortation, allowing workers to be allocated to more value-added tasks. Image courtesy of Regal Rexnord.

It’s Important to Know What Won’t Change in the Next 10 Years

By Emmet Stiff, Regal Rexnord Automation Solutions Specialist

Imagine the future of your warehouse, a decade from now, where conveyor technologies and robotic palletizing strategies have evolved in ways we can only begin to dream of today. What will these systems look like and how can we begin to implement solutions on our lines today that will last through the coming years?

As we know, in warehouses and distribution centers, efficiency and uptime are mission critical. We’re seeing advancements in vision systems, types of conveyors, robotics, communication protocols, electric motors, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. These developing technologies are playing a big role in what the automated warehouse of the future is going to be.

There are two distinct types of evolving warehouses; the high-volume package handling warehouse, common in e-commerce and intralogistics, and the high-precision package handling warehouse with end-of-line palletization that we often see in the manufacturing of consumer packaged goods. Whether it’s high-volume or high-precision, these warehouses require three critical capabilities — flexibility, accuracy, and scalability.

Looking Into the Next Decade

With consumer demand consistently on the rise and the need for accurate, timely deliveries, implementing a strong business strategy to maintain uptime and productivity is critical. Image courtesy of Regal Rexnord.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, was always asked, “What do you think is going to be different in 10 years’ time?” Bezos responded, “What is not going to change in 10 years’ time?” To him, it was about what was going to stay the same, because he could build a successful business strategy around the factors that remained stable. He always knew that now, and in the future, a customer will gravitate toward the lowest price, want a wide selection, and fast delivery. He took those expectations and used them to create the current, well-established Amazon business model.

Based on that principle, what do we know will stay the same across all areas of business?

1. As the population ages, finding people to do repetitive, manual tasks is shrinking. If a manual process can be automated, it most likely will be automated in 10 years’ time.
2. The frequency and power of major weather events are increasing due to climate change, causing a direct impact on our electricity infrastructure and creating the need for the ability to operate without power.
3. In the last five years alone, we’ve seen businesses forced to rapidly adjust to either changing economic circumstances or the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, supply chains became very strained, and consumer demands seemed to change overnight. Scalability is crucial — businesses need to know how they are going to scale when the environment or conditions around them forces them to.

How Technology will Shape the Warehouse of the Future

One key technological development to enable this ultramodern warehouse is vision systems. Vision systems can often see the world in ways above and beyond what humans can. They can capture heat, see in the dark, and read small barcodes from far away. Applying AI and machine learning enables these vision systems to capture all the information on a package or product as it comes into your automated warehouse.

Motors are also becoming more energy efficient and are now being offered with IE Level 5 energy efficiency — 40% more efficient than an equivalent IE Level 3 induction motor. We’re also seeing the introduction of 24-volt, low-voltage motorized drive rollers with the gearbox, motor, and drive shaft all integrated into one single tube. With 24-volt, low-voltage motors, you don’t need big 460-volt AC power drops that require an electrician to install, making it much easier to erect, tear down, and move the location of conveyor network or system.

Scalability must be done holistically from the beginning to ensure you aren’t moving a bottleneck from one place to another. It’s frustrating to put a lot of capital, time, and effort into improving your system, only to discover you can’t get overall system efficiency gains because you’ve moved a bottleneck. Vision systems, high-efficiency motors, and considering modularity and scalability right from the conception stage are key to enable these material handling conveyor networks of the future.

Automated Warehouse Types and Optimization Strategies

The ability to sort a wide variety of package types, like polybags, jiffy packs, boxes, and more, is a key capability for a flexible, scalable warehouse. Image courtesy of Regal Rexnord.

There are two distinct types of automated warehouses predicted to be prominent in the next decade: those that need accuracy and those that need precision.

• High accuracy, low precision: Seen in e-commerce and intralogistics. Must handle a variety of package types and sizes with a higher throughput capacity.
• High accuracy, high precision: Seen in case handling and palletizing. Lower throughput capacity but with gentler product handling.

What are ways to volumize accuracy? Recently firms have been using omni-directional roller belt technology to improve product integrity and to increase throughput and accuracy. Utilizing 24-volt MDR technology improves electrical efficiency and eliminates the need for compressed air by making the previous requirement for full-voltage 460V AC hookups obsolete. And finally, firms are using systems that are rapidly redeployable because of the concern about returns on total capital.

Having material handling equipment that can handle a range of different package types/sizes and is quickly redeployable means you’ll get more uptime and a better return on that employed capital. If your customers are demanding the ability to handle different package types as environmental laws change, request your vendors to provide equipment that can be flexible, scalable, and modular. You should also ensure your equipment can be accessible and serviceable when required.

Now, in the high-precision warehouse, the case has to be exactly where the system expects it to be. We see in the firms leveraging vision systems, new types of robotics, and AI that they’re using these new technologies to totally redesign their conveyor networks. They’re not only using robots, they’re also using omni-directional, two-dimensional conveyors that can move packages left, right, forward, backward, merge, split, and switch. What’s important for a lot of these firms is that as they load cases into their automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS), the package must be perfectly aligned to make sure it gets on to the lift that will take the case to the right level in the structure. These robots handle uniform case and carton sizes without the expectation of high throughput seen in high-accuracy warehouses.

The vision systems in roller top belts can see the depth and tell where the package is located on that belt for better segmentation and more precise picks. MDRs can also provide real time feedback, which eliminates the need for an encoder and saves on capital costs by moving from the VFD motor with the encoder, while eliminating the need for pusher arms that can tear, rip, or smear designs on packages. These new technologies are enabling innovative layouts for conveying systems and enable you to accomplish more within the same footprint.

When considering investing in new conveyor systems for your line, ask yourself what won’t change in the next 10 years and build a long-term business strategy based on requirements that are stable over time. For the automated warehouse and distribution centers of the future, flexibility, accuracy, and scalability are paramount. When implementing automation, understand the manual processes you’re replacing, have key performance indicators in place, and then be able to judge performance improvements and determine if you are getting the desired return on investment.

About the Author

With a 15-year tenure with Regal Rexnord, Emmet Stiff focuses on helping customers integrate omni-directional motion-controlled rollerball belt technology to improve robotic cycle times and increase efficiency. His understanding of mechanical power transmission components enables him to identify optimized solutions to deliver a complete conveying network fully integrated with robotic applications. For more visit:

https://www.regalrexnord.com/industries/material-handling-warehouse-distribution