A sweet win for automation: Palletizing frosting buckets with Robotiq + Alba

When your product is frosting and your goal is to move it—fast, clean, and without breaking a sweat—you don’t want to leave anything to chance. That’s exactly why one bakery manufacturer teamed up with Robotiq and Alba to automate their bucket palletizing process. The mission? Stack a variety of frosting bucket sizes onto CHEP and GMA pallets without manual labor or downtime.

Spoiler alert: mission accomplished.

From manual to automated, without missing a beat

The bakery needed a better way to palletize heavy buckets of frosting. The old-school method—manually stacking both sides of the pallet—was inefficient and tough on workers. To make matters more complicated, they didn’t want to dedicate staff just to place empty pallets on the conveyor.

So, we brought in the heavy hitters:

• Robotiq’s AX30 palletizing solution, powered by the UR30 cobot, capable of handling payloads up to 70 lb (32 kg).
  
  
• Alba’s conveyor and pallet dispenser system, engineered for reliability and seamless integration.
  
  

The result? A fully automated setup that palletizes 57 lb loads with precision—and zero strain on the workforce.

A smart system with serious muscle

The real magic was in the integration. Alba supplied a pallet dispenser that automatically delivered empty pallets to the build zone. From there, the AX30, enhanced with a seventh Z-axis, tackled palletizing with the reach and flexibility the application demanded.

To support the cobot’s movements, Alba designed a conveyor system that did more than move product—it made the entire process smarter:

• A blade stop and backstop squared up pallets for accurate picking.
  
  
• An ultrasonic sensor at the fork truck pick-up zone ensured precise, safe unloading.
  
  
• A PanelView 800 HMI touchscreen gave operators complete control over dispenser, build, and pick-up zones.
  
  

With this system in place, the line ran autonomously—requiring just a forklift driver to remove full pallets. Talk about efficient teamwork.

15 pallets per hour, zero fuss

With repeatability baked in and heavy lifting handled by the cobot, the system now delivers up to 15 full pallets per hour. That's 2,736 lbs of frosting goodness per pallet, effortlessly moved and stacked, while operators focus on higher-value tasks.

They also added:

• Interlayer sheet handling, for added stability during stacking
• Safety scanners, partitions, and light curtains to separate people and machinery, keeping everyone protected

Lean Robotics in action

At Robotiq, we follow the Lean Robotics methodology—Design → Integrate → Operate—to keep automation simple, scalable, and smart. This project checked every box: 

✅ Labor reallocation
✅ Improved ergonomics
✅ Flexible solution for different bucket sizes
✅ Fast deployment
✅ Smooth integration with Alba’s conveyor tech

It’s a textbook example of how collaboration turns challenges into sweet victories.

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