Expanding the lineup of the MOTOMAN-PL Series palletizing robots, Yaskawa Electric Corporation has released MOTOMAN-PL190 with payload capacity of 190kg and maximum reach of 3,159mm; MOTOMAN-PL320 with payload capacity of 320kg and maximum reach of 3,159mm; MOTOMAN-PL500 with payload capacity of 500kg and maximum reach of 3,159mm); and MOTOMAN-PL800 with payload capacity of 800kg and maximum reach of 3,159mm.

Industry Background

The need for automation and labor saving has been accelerating to meet growing labor shortage. As a result, various industries employ automation processes using robots to improve productivity and reduce manufacturing cost. In particular, the logistics industry as well as food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics industries are faced with an urgent need to improve efficiency and automate the process of packing and stacking individual products. In order to meet these needs, Yaskawa offers a wide range of applications for palletizing, from small items such as small packaging to large items such as building materials.

The newly developed MOTOMAN-PL Series is compatible with the YRC1000 robot controller, which is designed for ease of use. The MOTOMAN-PL Series not only maximizes robot performance, but also improves energy-saving performance through the power regeneration function and improves maintenability by reducing wiring, thus contributing to the setup of an optimal palletizing system.

In addition, the MOTOMAN-PL190 and PL320 are designed to be more user-friendly, slimmer than the previous MOTOMAN-MPL Series, and have an improved payload capacity.Key FeaturesDuring the final shipping condition, cardboard or bagged items can be damaged even with strong packaging. Many of them easily deform and require soft grip and strong power. As a result, an air-drive or suction is mainly used, thus making the piping larger. In order to place these large pipes in the arm, the company has adopted a large-diameter hollow structure for the wrist shaft at the tip of the arm to eliminate interference with peripheral equipment and the robot arm.

In addition, the robot has a wide operating range in the height direction and can be loaded up to the optimum pallet size, so it can flexibly respond to the customer’s facility environment.

The robot controller YRC1000 that is used for medium and large models has an energy generated when the motor is decelerated. The system is equipped with a power regeneration function that makes effective use of the system, which can reduce robot power consumption by approximately 30 percent, contributing to energy conservation at customer production sites.

Moreover, the connection between the robot and the controller can be made with a single cable, which reduces the wiring time during setup as well as realizing simple system.

When the communication line inside the manipulator is disconnected or the encoder error of each axis servo motor occurs, an error alarm as communication error of the corresponding robot shaft is displayed on the programming pendant, making it easier to identify the error. In addition, it is equipped with a multi-port as standard in each part, which enables temporary restoration when the communication line is disconnected or temporary wiring to identify abnormal locations, and is extremely easy to maintain, as it reduces the time required for temporary restoration and temporary wiring.

Lastly, the palletizing application software MotoPal enables automatic generation of robot operation programs by simply setting conveyor and station positions, product sizes and loading/unloading patterns.