Palletizing robot: How to choose load capacity, reach and speed

🔹 Introduction: No robot is like a robot

Imagine the end of your production line. Boxes, bags or packages are piling up on a conveyor. And there stands your new palletizing robot – a tireless worker who systematically stacks them onto a pallet. It sounds great. But for this vision to work, you have to choose the right one.

Many companies think that "a robot is a robot". But a robot that is great at welding is not at all suitable for palletizing. A robot designed for 50kg bags is unnecessarily expensive for stacking 5kg boxes. Choosing a palletizing robot is mainly about three key parameters: load capacity, reach and speed.

🔹 Main part: Anatomy of the perfect palletizing worker

The problem called "bad choice"

In practice, the most common mistake is poor specification.

Undersized robot: A company buys a robot with a load capacity of 10 kg. But it forgets that the vacuum gripper itself weighs 4 kg. Then only 6 kg are left for the product. The robot is overloaded, wears out faster and does not reach the required speed.

Oversized robot: A company buys a giant industrial robot with a 100 kg load capacity "just in case", even though it only packs 10 kg boxes. The result? An unnecessarily high price, high energy consumption and huge demands on space and safety cages.

Key parameters: What to ask when choosing?

When choosing a palletizing robot, focus on these three details.

1. Payload – Treacherous Mathematics
Load capacity is not just the weight of your product. It is the sum of: Product weight + Gripper weight = Minimum required load capacity

A typical vacuum palletizing gripper can weigh between 5 and 15 kg. So if you are stacking a 10 kg box, you need a robot with a load capacity of at least 15 kg, ideally with a 20–30% reserve, i.e. 20 kg.

2. Reach – The King of the Euro Pallet
The robot must comfortably reach two places:

• Pick-up location: Typically the end of the conveyor.
• Farthest corner of the pallet: For a standard Euro pallet (1200 x 800 mm), the robot must be able to place the product in the corner furthest from it.

At the same time, it must be able to handle vertical reach – i.e. stack a pallet up to a height of, for example, 1.8 or 2.2 meters. A robot with a reach of 900 mm for a full Euro pallet from a static position is simply not enough. Arms with a reach of 1300 mm or more are ideal for palletizing.

3. Speed ​​(Number of cycles per minute)
How fast does your line produce? If the line is producing 10 boxes per minute, the robot must be able to handle 10 cycles (pick, transfer, place, return) per minute. Always allow for a margin.

Two worlds of palletizing: Traditional robot vs. Cobot

Traditional industrial robot
These are those big, fast robots you know from car factories.

• Advantages: Extreme speed and huge load capacity (easily 100–500 kg). They often have only 4 axes, which is faster for palletizing (movement only up/down and sideways).
• Disadvantages: They always have to be in a massive safety cage, they take up a lot of space, programming is complicated, and the purchase price of the entire cell is high.

Collaborative robot (Cobot)
A modern and flexible solution that changes the rules of the game.

• Advantages: Safe operation next to people (after risk analysis, a scanner is often enough instead of a cage), low space requirements, extremely simple programming and quick return on investment.
• Disadvantages: Lower payload (typically up to 25 kg) and lower speed in collaborative mode.

For 80% of common applications (packages and boxes up to 20 kg), a collaborative robot is today a smarter, cheaper and more flexible choice.

🔹 Recommended solutions: Robots that have both strength and reach

Small arms are not suitable for palletizing. You need powerful machines with a long reach.

• Universal Robots UR20: The new flagship from UR. With a load capacity of 20 kg and a huge reach of 1750 mm, it was designed specifically for palletizing Euro pallets to great heights.
• Universal Robots UR10e: The proven standard. It can carry 12.5 kg and with a reach of 1300 mm it comfortably covers most palletizing tasks.
• Dobot CR16: Offers great price-performance ratio with a load capacity of 16 kg and a reach of 1000 mm, suitable for smaller pallets or specific applications.
• OnRobot VGP20 (Gripper): A robot alone is not enough. You need a gripper. This vacuum gripper is designed specifically for palletizing – it can handle up to 20 kg and can handle porous cardboard or uneven surfaces.

🔹 Frequently asked questions about choosing a palletizing robot (FAQ)

1. What is "payload" and why is it so important?
Payload is the maximum weight that the robot can carry at its end (on the flange). It is crucial because you have to add up the weight of the product AND the weight of the gripper. If you exceed this sum, the robot will not work reliably.

2. Is a robot with a reach of 1000 mm enough for a Euro pallet?
Usually not, if it is standing in one place. A Euro pallet has a diagonal of about 1440 mm. To comfortably reach all corners from one place, you need a robot with a reach of at least 1300 mm (like the UR10e) or larger (like the UR20).

3. When to choose a cobot and when a large industrial robot?
Simply put: If your products are heavier than 25 kg OR you need extremely high speed (more than 15 cycles per minute), you need a large caged industrial robot. For everything else, a cobot is a more flexible and cheaper option.

🔹 Conclusion: The right robot is the foundation of success

Choosing the right palletizing robot is not a science, but requires careful analysis of three basic parameters – load capacity, reach and speed. The right robot will serve you reliably for years, while the wrong one will only become a source of problems.

Not sure which robot has the right power and reach for your line? Visit svet-robotu.cz and let us design a tailor-made solution for you.