Starter PalletTool advice

    Hey, all. I've just been handed my first-ever Fanuc-based Palletizing project, and I need a bit of help sorting out the various Fanuc options.

    I have a single robot that will batch-build single-SKU pallets, but will have three different product sizes, grouped picks, and a slightly odd palletizing pattern in one case. These are the patterns:

    I did mention group picks -- for the purple and blue patterns, the basic plan is simply to have the infeed conveyors "batch up" 3 (purple) or 4 (blue) boxes, and have the robot pick that group as a single pick. So from PalletTool's POV, each layer of these SKUs would basically only have 2 "boxes".

    The orange pattern is the joker in the deck. If we want to maximize pick rate, then we would pick the lower 3 rows as groups of 4, and then pick the top row as a group of 3, for 4 total pick&drop cycles per layer (The conveyor "grouper" would change how it builds a pick group on the fly). However, the simpler choice is probably to make every pick group 3 boxes in size, like the top row, and accept the time hit of going up to 5 cycles per layer.

    Since I like simplicity, I prefer the slower option. :smiling_face_with_halo: And so far, it seems to work in my initial fumblings with PalletTool Turbo in RoboGuide (I have so much to learn). But I may get pushed towards minimizing pallet load time. So, my questions for the Big Brains:

    1. Which Palletizing tool (if any) would support the "fast" option for the orange pattern? My gut feeling is that, to the Palletizing tool, this would look like a mixed-SKU layer

    2. Is there a decent "idiot's guide" to setting up PalletTool in RoboGuide? I'm trying to climb the learning curve for PalletTool and RoboGuide at the same time. I've downloaded the relevant manuals and starting grinding through them, but something more digestible would be nice.

    3. Is there an issue with telling PalletTool that I have "1 big box" that, in reality, actually is made of 3-4 real boxes? I've seen some "grouped pick" options in PalletTool that I haven't tried using yet (plus, it seems to be limited to 3 max?)

    4. I'm going to have two pick stations (A&B) and two palletizing stations (A&B), running different products at the same time. There won't be any product crossover between the A and B stations, but making cycle time might require having the robot switch between A and B on the fly -- pick&place one A group, then go over and service B while the A infeed is refilling. Does this present an issue for PalletTool?

  • Go to Best Answer

    From my view point:

    • 1. Which Palletizing tool (if any) would support the "fast" option for the orange pattern? My gut feeling is that, to the Palletizing tool, this would look like a mixed-SKU layer: Standard PalletTool does this, so there is no real fast or slow way. In pallet tool, you can pick 4 boxes at once, as well as 3 boxes at once. Of course depending on you end of arm tool. In palleTool, you tell it the groupings. Like if you are picking 4 boxes, it would be picks 1&2&3&4, Second pick would be 5&6&7&8, Three 9&10&11&12, last pick would be 13&14&15.

      2. Is there a decent "idiot's guide" to setting up PalletTool in RoboGuide? I'm trying to climb the learning curve for PalletTool and RoboGuide at the same time. I've downloaded the relevant manuals and starting grinding through them, but something more digestible would be nice. I have not seen anyting like this. RoboGuide is the most expensive unuser friendly software I have ever used.

      3. Is there an issue with telling PalletTool that I have "1 big box" that, in reality, actually is made of 3-4 real boxes? I've seen some "grouped pick" options in PalletTool that I haven't tried using yet (plus, it seems to be limited to 3 max?) There is not an issue with this as long as everyone who operates the machine knows this. We do it all the time. However, you do not have to pick 3 and tell it that it is 1 pick.

      4. I'm going to have two pick stations (A&B) and two palletizing stations (A&B), running different products at the same time. There won't be any product crossover between the A and B stations, but making cycle time might require having the robot switch between A and B on the fly -- pick&place one A group, then go over and service B while the A infeed is refilling. Does this present an issue for PalletTool? We write custom code to handle this. I do not know how PalletTool would normally handle this.

    This is just my viewpoint. I would wait for others to chime in before you make any decisions!

    Just wanted to provide some screenshots to cobenson's explination:

    1)

    2)Fanuc America offers an online training course now that we're living in COVID land, but its probably not the greatest value if you already have access to roboguide and can just play around.

    3)Like benson said, Ive seen routines that pick 20 cases at a time while calling it "1". If you're going that route a PLC/HMI combo for controlling case counts might be nice as the TP interface will still call this 1 box and that can confuse some operators.


    4) You can actually specify how pallet tool handles picking between in-feeds in a few different ways, but its going to depend on what your product flow looks like. Try the out the setting under SETUP>PalletSystem > 7 - Pallet Switch. Depending on how the two lines run, you may still end up special casing some stuff to prevent one infeed from hogging all the attention.

    Edited once, last by Erik Olsen (September 11, 2020 at 1:37 AM).

    Thank you, it helps to get an informed viewpoint.

    Quote from cobenson

    RoboGuide is the most expensive unuser friendly software I have ever used.

    Heh... Siemens S7 makes RG look downright friendly. And the Allen-Bradley 6200-series software from the days of Windows 3.1, oh geez....

    Quote from Erik Olsen

    Fanuc America offers an online training course now that we're living in COVID land, but its probably not the greatest value if you already have access to roboguide and can just play around.

    I'm already signed up for the course, but it won't be until the end of the month. Since I have RG, I decided to front-load as much as I could.

    As a nice treat, it turns out that the PalletPro example cells I want to look at... require version 7.x controllers. :astonished_face: So now I have to figure out how to add older controller versions to my current RG install. Hey, Fanuc, haven't you ever heard of "backwards compatibility"? :grinning_squinting_face:

    Quote from SkyeFire

    So now I have to figure out how to add older controller versions to my current RG install.

    That's easy, on RG install medium you have the folders FRVRCxxx, where xxx is the version number of the virtual robot system. Just execute the setup in the correspondig folder.

    But somewhere in a readme I have seen a remark, that you should install the newest version at last.

    So, if you run into problems with your real/new version install the newest version again.

    • Best Answer

    Regarding the one oddball pallet pattern. PalletTool would support picking three groups of four and then one group of three that you could lay down all at once. You would need to specify length on length for the picks of three cases and length on width for the other picks. PalletTool sets up pick request outputs and case orientation outputs. As long as you can get those working with a case turner, you would be all set.

    Note: Case turning reliably is not the easiest thing in the world and is prone to failures (not turned or overturned) at high rates. I have used some interesting Intralox belts in the past with success, but it took a while to dial it in.

    Quote from hermann

    That's easy, on RG install medium you have the folders FRVRCxxx, where xxx is the version number of the virtual robot system. Just execute the setup in the correspondig folder.

    But somewhere in a readme I have seen a remark, that you should install the newest version at last.

    So, if you run into problems with your real/new version install the newest version again.

    On my experience, older FRVRCs doesn't play well if installed after Roboguide itself. Unless disk space or time are problems, the best option is install all FRVRCs available together with RG.

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