Leicester-based, BS Handling Systems has installed an 18.5m-long pallet roller conveyor for SCA Wood UK Ltd at its Melton facility. The pallet conveyor was installed as part of SCA Wood UK’s plan to automate the palletisation of its softwood shavings bi-product. It produces its own make of quality dust extracted softwood shavings for the equine market under the brand name Thoroughbred.

“Previously we were using a manual system to move the pallets stacked with our Thoroughbred shavings,” said Russ Ellis, production development manager at SCA Wood UK.

“However we were never really happy with the system and from a health and safety perspective it was no longer meeting our requirements so we came to the decision that it was time to automate the line.”

The challenging part of the installation was producing a solution that could not only automate the movement of pallets, but also incorporate the company’s existing processes.

This included a baling machine, which packs the shavings into bales, a robot arm for the movement of packed bales, a scissor lift to move the pallet during the stacking process and a shrink wrapping machine with turntable, which wraps the pallets.

The system starts with the softwood shavings being filtered and bagged by a baling machine. The baling machine connects to a conveyor, which transports the packed bales to the robot arm. The robot arm then individually picks up each bale and systematically places it onto the pallet. On average, each pallet holds 42 bales.

As the weight increases, the scissor lift lowers the pallet incrementally to meet the start of the powered roller conveyor. Once the pallet is full, it then joins the conveyor line and is transported to the shrink-wrapping machine in the centre. The pallet is then moved onto the turntable, which rotates the pallet to enable the bale stack to be wrapped.

Once wrapped, it progresses along to the end of the conveyor line where up to four pallets can accumulate before a forklift truck moves them for storage.

The conveyor line has been optimised to meet SCA Wood UK’s target of producing 51 pallets per day.