Still Chasing End-of-Line at Midnight?

Author: Karl Koenigsberger, Sales Director, IRIS Factory Automation

The RPZ-U debuts at Pack Expo, Oct 18-21.

Built for your floor.

It's 11 PM. The line's been running since six this morning, and end-of-line is still the bottleneck it was six months ago. Somewhere on the schedule board, tomorrow's changeover is already eating into tonight's output: a different case size, a different pallet pattern, another hour (or three) of manual reset before anyone's palletizing again.

Your runs got shorter. Most automation doesn't match the needed flexibility. Your runs are shorter than they used to be. Your SKU count is up. You're short-staffed more shifts than not, and every changeover costs you time you didn't have. The plants pulling ahead right now aren't the ones with the fanciest robot: they're the ones that can turn a line around in minutes. A lot of robotic palletizing still doesn't work that way: sized for a dedicated footprint, weeks of outside integration before it runs a single pallet. Flexible on paper. Slow on your floor.

That mismatch is behind a lot of "failed" automation projects. The robots work fine. They were specified for a market that has shifted.

What actually earns your trust here You go to Pack Expo to see things run and walk away with ideas. That's what a trade show is for. Observe for yourself a truly flexible solution, live and hands-on, at either booth: heavy-duty industrial at Kawasak Robotics, cobot at Procure Analytics, and see why one (or both!) is rightsized, fast, and staffable for your floor. And if seeing it isn't enough, ask about running the cobot configuration on your own floor before you commit to a full purchase.

What would change if changeover took minutes, not hours? That's the question worth asking before any solution gets mentioned. The answer tends to be the same whether you're running cobots or full industrial arms: fewer stoppages, less overtime, a supervisor who isn't triaging the same line every single day.

Introducing the RPZ-U

Meet the RPZ-U, our new palletizing platform, debuting at Pack Expo. It exists to make that question answerable, and it's built for your floor, not for a spec sheet. The cobot configuration needs no robotics experience to run, no dedicated space carved out of a layout that's already tight, and no infrastructure overhaul before it earns its keep. One platform, up to 25kg payload, built to move with high-mix, low-volume production. Start with the cobot configuration, then step up to industrial on the same platform as your volume grows.

See it two ways, live, at Pack Expo Both configurations run all four days of the show.

• Kawasaki Booth, N-5933: See the RPZ-U in its heavy-duty configuration, built for continuous-cycle, higher-throughput lines. If your floor runs hard and long, this is the one to watch.

• Procure Analytics Booth, LU-6613: See the cobot configuration, built for tight spaces and teams without a robotics background on staff. This is also where you can learn about our Gateway Automation Program: a 90-day run of the RPZ-U cobot on your own floor before you commit to a full purchase. Ask the team at the booth if your floor qualifies.

Give us 15 minutes. Leave knowing if this fits your floor. Walk up any time, or book ahead and we'll come ready to talk about your line, your SKUs, and your changeovers. Request time with our team: email sales@iriscs.com

Booth N-5933 (Kawasaki) or Booth LU-6613 (Procure Analytics), Oct 18–21, McCormick Place, Chicago.

Come see it, on us Use the code below for a complimentary registration. Registration Code: 66A81 Register here: xpressreg.net/register/pack1026