Heavy Duty Collaborative Robot Boosts Palletizing Performance at Bob’s Red Mill

By Laura Studwell, Marketing Director at Universal Robots

Founded in 1978, Bob’s Red Mill in Milwaukie, Oregon, has grown rapidly from a ‘mom and pop’ business to a company with more than 700 workers.

Founded in 1978, Bob’s Red Mill in Milwaukie, Oregon, has grown rapidly from ‘mom and pop’ size to become a company with more than 700 workers operating out of an approximately 800,000 square-foot facility making more than 200 different products distributed worldwide.

Bob’s Red Mill’s milling process is based on historic tradition, but the company’s packaging and product handling requires a high-tech approach.

“Our vision is to double the number of people eating Bob’s Red Mill by 2030. Automation will help us reach that goal,” says Nick Chow, engineering manager at Bob’s Red Mill, who had deployed large palletizing robots when the manual labor market dwindled during COVID. The deployment worked well on the company’s big production lines but would not fit into its smaller lines.

“We wanted a robot that could operate much closer to operators in more confined spaces,” explains Chow. “Collaborative robots (cobots) fit that window between traditional industrial robots and hand palletizing, allowing us to be in a small footprint while still enabling our employee owners to safely interact with the palletizing system.”

PACK EXPO Secrets

But when Bob’s Red Mill researched the cobot market, the company was unable to find a solution that met its reach, payload and speed requirements. That is, until Nick Chow stopped by Columbia/Okura’s booth at PACK EXPO last year.

“They told me they were working on something secretive and wanted to partner with Bob’s Red Mill,” says Chow. The secret was eventually revealed; a heavy duty UR20 cobot that Columbia/Okura, a partner of Universal Robots (UR), was incorporating into their turnkey palletizer; the miniPAL+.

“We had already worked with Bob’s Red Mill, deploying larger robots, and knew the UR20 would be a perfect fit for their smaller cells,” explains Parker Morris-Pinson, inside sales specialist at Columbia/Okura.

Nick Chow was already somewhat familiar with Universal Robots’ industrial automation.

“We had been eyeing UR cobots for a long time; I liked all the little case studies they do, whether it’s loading CNC machines or using them in applications like ours. We appreciate the simplicity, their track record and the out-of-the-box features,” he says, recalling his excitement at PACK EXPO when he learned that a new robot capable of meeting his cycle time, footprint, reach, and payload requirements was waiting in the wings.

Quick-to-deploy MiniPAL+ Keeps up with Production Rates

The release of a new cobot with a payload capacity of 44lbs (20kg) and a reach capacity of 1750mm (68.9in) enabled Milwaukie, Oregon-based historic whole grain manufacturer Bob’s Red Mill to free up four operators, achieve optimum cycle times, and boost company growth. Image courtesy of Universal Robots.

miniPAL+ is a new turnkey palletizing system from Columbia/Okura that includes the UR20 cobot arm, safety area scanners, guarding, built in pallet jack pockets, radar, the CPT vacuum gripper from PIAB, and Rocketfarm’s PALLY palletizing software.

“Compared to the week-long installation of a traditional industrial robot, the UR20 implementation is much quicker,” remarks Chow, noting that the miniPAL+ took just hours to unbox and bolt together.

The miniPAL+ can handle up to 14 cases a minute, crucial for any company focused on productivity boosts and achieving optimum cycle rates.

“Our current production requires 7-8 cases per minute, but we are aiming for a 10-12 case rate,” says Chow. “With 14-case-per-minute capacity, we can also account for the time it takes to add slip sheets in between each layer and allow the cobot to catch up if needed.” The UR20’s 20kg (44.1lbs) payload enables Bob’s Red Mill to double-pick boxes that each weigh between 4-10lbs.

In addition, the UR20’s arm provides a 1750mm (68.9in) reach capacity, eliminating the need for the vertical 7^th axis lift column often used in smaller cobot palletizers to move the robot’s arm up and down. 

“I was surprised! It’s a hefty cobot that gave us confidence it would be robust enough to keep up,” says Chow. “At 81in, our pallets are a little taller than average, but the UR20 allows us to easily reach the back corners without us having to first elevate the cobot arm with a 7^th axis, which would eat into our rate.”

Safety and Speed with an Optimized Footprint

The miniPAL+ palletizer is caged on three sides with a small opening on the back for the infeed conveyor. The miniPAL+’s wide-open front enables safe interaction with the cell. For example, if a worker or a forklift enters the cobot’s work envelope, the motion is detected by an area scanner that slows the cobot down to 10% speed from 2500mm/second to 250mm/second. And in case of collision with the UR20, its built-in force and power sensors immediately bring the robot to a stop, preventing injury.

Programming is made easy by the specialist PALLY software. There are a couple of things to learn in terms of pallet pattern design, box sizes, and layouts, but high on usability. “It took roughly 45-60 minutes to get us all trained through a multitude of scenarios,” says Chow, who expects to perform hundreds of product change-overs with the miniPAL+. “Today we’re packaging powders, but we can change over to granular products in a matter of minutes.”

Enhancing Worker Well-being

Bob’s Red Mill is employee owned, which has fueled employee acceptance of new technologies.

“The employee owners were really excited to see this palletizing technology come to their production line. If you are producing well, we all get a share of the company profits. Automation is key in helping us grow and share our profits through profit sharing, while also reducing injuries so everybody goes home safely.”

The miniPAL+ solution has freed up four operators over four shifts in the company’s 24-hour-operation. Instead of stacking pallets all day long, the workers can focus on more value-added tasks, such as quality inspection, rather than repetitive manual palletizing tasks.

About the Author

Laura Studwell is the Marketing Director at Universal Robots. Learn more https://www.universal-robots.com,  and visit PACK EXPO booth # N5751 to see UR robots palletizing, case packing, box erecting and more!