The labatt case depalletizer.

Russell, R.A.

Abstract
The basic principle of the Labatt case depalletizer is mechanical detiering of one tier of packages from a pallet which is almost in a horizontal position. The depalletizer consists of 3 sections, the load section, the tilt chamber and the detierer section. The load chamber feeds a vertical pallet into the tilt chamber. The tilt chamber tilts the pallet into an almost horizontal position and loads the detiering device. The basic purpose of this chamber is to put the pallet of empty bottles on its side and use gravity and mechanical clamping to separate the top tier of cases from the remaining tiers. In the detierer the top tier is clamped and a curtain slides between the top and 2nd tier to separate them. The tier clamps are released and the tier drops onto a drop chute and is conveyed to a sorting table. This is repeated with each tier and finally the pallet is discharged into the pallet stacker. Problems were encountered with intertier and interlocked flaps, variable size packages and residual liquid in the returnable bottle but these have been overcome.
Keywords: brewing equipment packaging pallet