Installation and Commissioning

4.7 PalletWareGeneralThe PalletWare package is a set of Rapid modules and user screens, which performbasic operations related to a palletizing process. These operations include a number ofservices which can be called from a main program to perform pick and place operationsfor one or up to five palletizing tasks in parallel. For each such task a number ofseparate dynamic variables are used to describe and keep track of each on-going palletoperation. The PalletWare package is intended to work with Rapid modules generatedfrom PalletWizard, a PC tool for off-line programming of pallet cycles.Pallet cyclesUp to five different pallet cycles may be run in parallel, where a pallet cycle is the taskto run a complete palletizing job for a pallet, i.e. to pick and place all products,including the pallet itself.Each pallet cycle includes a number of layer cycles, where each layer cycle is the taskto complete one layer with all the parts to be picked and placed in this layer.Each layer cycle may further be broken down into a number of pick-place cycles, whereeach pick-place cycle is the task to pick one or several parts and place them on thepallet. Within each pick-place cycle there may be several pick operations, if parts mustbe picked in many separate operations. Similarly, there may be several place operationsin each pick-place cycle.Each layer may be either an in-feeder layer, where the products, e.g. boxes, are pickedfrom an in-feeder, or a stack layer, where the product, e.g. an empty pallet, is searchedand picked from a stack.If several pallet cycles are run in parallel, then one complete pick-place cycle is alwaysfinished before a new one is started in another pallet cycle.Pallet cellThe pallet cell may include any number of pallet stations, in-feeders and stacks forpallets, tier sheets or slip sheets. All such stations and stacks are defined as regardsposition, with an individual coordinate system (work object).The palletizing robot is normally an IRB 6400 or IRB 640 but any robot type may beused. The tool to use may be a mechanical gripper or a tool with suction cups, possiblywith separate grip zones for multiple picking and placing. Several different tooldatamay be defined and used depending on the product dimensions and number of products.42 Product Specification RobotWare for BaseWare OS 3.1