Robotic palletizer on a winery bottling line

Winery · Palletizing · Vendor published

The job

Martin Ray Winery in California ran a bottling line where employees stacked wine cases by hand all day, each case around 15 kg. The winery automated end-of-line palletizing so the crew no longer lifts cases repetitively while the bottling line keeps its pace.

The shop

Headcount and shifts not published; a single winery operation, described by the vendor as automating one end-of-line station.

The equipment

Robotiq PE20 Lean Palletizing solution built on a Universal Robots UR20 with a Robotiq PowerPick 30 vacuum gripper.

The published numbers

Payload: wine cases of about 15 kg handled, published-by-vendor; the vendor lists a 32 kg maximum case weight for the solution, published-by-vendor. Rate: 6 to 10 picks per minute in this application, published-by-vendor. Cost: system price not published; the vendor states prior manual palletizing labor cost the winery about 100,000 US dollars per year, published-by-vendor. Payback: 18 months, a vendor claim.

Where a source did not publish a figure, this entry says so rather than guessing.

What we would check before believing it applies to you

The economics here rest on a labor line item the winery could name, which is the cleanest way to justify a palletizer: know what hand stacking costs you per year before shopping. The quoted 6 to 10 picks per minute is modest, so a shop should time its own case output at peak bottling speed and confirm the robot rate covers it with margin, not on average but at the fastest run. Wineries are seasonal, so ask how the cell earns its keep in the off months or whether the payback math already assumes part year use. Verify case weight and stack height against the gripper and arm limits, and plan clamp truck or pallet jack access around the cell before committing floor space.

Sources