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Increase Packaging Speed with Load Transfer Stations

For many years, the palletizing process stayed much the same. A conveyor system lined up the products into rows, and then the rows of products were pushed onto a pallet. Once the pallet was full, it was wrapped in plastic and sent on its way. With today’s increase in manufacturing demands, this old system does not work for many products. In addition to increased demand, many packages cannot be loaded onto pallets using traditional palletizing equipment. This brought about the rise in new palletizing methods, including high level palletizers and robot palletizers. These machines are capable of loading products faster and more efficiently than some of the older in line systems.

However, these systems are not ideal for all situations. Luckily, this is where load transfer stations come into play. A load transfer station is a new type of palletizing machine that works with other palletizing equipment to move products quickly from one place to another.

Basically, load transfer stations are mobile loading stations for pallets. The palletizer can load the products directly onto the transfer station, which has an attached forklift and moving mechanism that a worker operates. After the station is full, the worker can quickly move the stack of pallets into the loading zone. The worker can quickly move the load station out of the way to make room for a new load station. Most loading stations can transfer a pallet load in less than 60 seconds, which can save a factory hundreds of loading and packing hours.

Any company that struggles to keep up with effective packaging rates should look into the use of a load transfer station to help facilitate and increase the speed of the process. Increasing packaging and shipping speed will increase customer satisfaction, which can lead to a higher profit margin for any company.