Palletising wooden blocks

Presswood International B.V. in Ermelo/Holland – a company of the Vierhouten Group – has for more than 15 years been a licensee of Werzalit AG & Co. KG in Oberstenfeld, producing presswood non-returnable pallets at the facility in Holland using the internationally patented Werzalit process. For the plant in Berlin, Krones supplied four fully automatic Pressant Universal palletisers, each of them able to palletise the output from two block lines.
At the new facility in Berlin, four Pressant Universal layer palletisers, each with two pallet positions, have been commissioned in August 2002. The output from up to eight lines handling different block dimensions can be palletised simultaneously. Each individual palletiser features a travelling carriage with two pallet loading positions.  On the two single-track block infeed conveyors, the quantities needed for each layer are accumulated until on one of them the requisite number of blocks has been reached, whereupon they are called off for the palletising operation. Row by row, the lines of blocks are then transported into the palletiser’s grouping station and shaped into the appropriate layer. The travelling carriage takes the pallet concerned to the loading position, while simultaneously completing the layer pattern and depositing the blocks on the empty pallet or on the previously stacked layer. A preselection option is provided for inserting a layer pad between the individual layers of blocks, thus ensuring that a precisely stacked full pallet leaves the palletiser.
Both round and rectangular, square and semi-circular blocks are handled. Each line can handle 2,730 to 5,775 blocks an hour. From two central magazines, the palletisers are supplied via pallet conveyors with empty pallets, each of the palletisers being equipped with an empty-pallet pre-positioning slot.