Bi-Directional Palletising & De-Palletising Cube — One Cell for Inbound, Outbound, and Buffering

A highly flexible robotic cell that can palletise bottles onto pallets, de-palletise bottles back onto conveyor, or buffer production during downstream congestion. Built around an ABB robot and Mexx universal bottle vacuum tooling, the cube supports multiple bottle formats and integrates cleanly with conveyors, pallet handling, and site logistics.

What the Bi-Directional Cube does

The Bi-Directional Cube is a “switchable” pallet cell. It can build pallets from loose bottles coming off conveyor, or reverse the flow—unloading pallets back to conveyor for downstream processing. When production becomes constrained, the cube can be configured to buffer bottles by palletising temporarily, then feed bottles back out when the downstream line recovers.

How it works (process)

• Mode selection: the operator selects palletise, de-palletise, or buffer mode from the HMI (recipe-based).
• Infeed & positioning: bottles arrive via conveyor (palletise mode) or pallets present via pallet infeed (de-palletise mode).
• Robotic handling: the ABB robot uses the Mexx vacuum head to pick bottles in configured groups.
• Placement / discharge: bottles are placed onto the pallet in a defined pattern, or placed onto conveyor for downstream flow.
• Buffering logic: when downstream is constrained, bottles can be palletised as temporary storage; when demand returns, pallets can be unloaded back to conveyor.
• Pallet movement: full pallets index to outfeed for forklift/AGV transfer, while new pallets are presented to maintain uptime.

Key features

• Bi-directional operation: palletise to pallets or de-palletise back to conveyor
• Buffer capability: supports accumulation and controlled release to stabilise production flow
• Central control via HMI for recipes, patterns, and mode selection
• ABB robot + Mexx universal bottle vacuum tooling designed for multiple bottle formats
• Automatic pallet infeed and outfeed options (site dependent)
• Integration-ready: conveyors, upstream blow moulding discharge, downstream lines, inspection/vision (optional)
• AGV interfaces — Optional for pallet movements and layer-pad logistics
• Safety-first design: guarding and interlocks engineered to meet applicable AU/NZ requirements and site risk assessments

Common use cases

• Inline blow moulding buffering when downstream equipment trips or slows
• Changeover management by palletising one format while another line is cleared
• Mixed line support where palletising and de-palletising are required at different times
• Site logistics optimisation with pallet outfeed to forklift/AGV