Greg Bowen has finally found the automated trim saw that he has been dreaming of, and it has completely revolutionized his recycling operation.
Greg Bowen, president of Bo’s Pallets & Mulch, Inc. in Adairsville, Georgia has been looking for a better way to trim and sort repair boards for years. Late last year, his company installed the Urban Sawmill™ from Alliance Automation, and the system has performed better than his wildest expectations.
Bowen suggested, “In my opinion, the Urban Sawmill is the biggest thing to hit the pallet recycling business since the bandsaw dismantler first came on the scene. Just yesterday, my people cut 3,500 boards per hour, for a 10-hour day, so 35,000 boards, and that’s with five people, and nobody has to work hard.”
Alliance Automation of Van Wert, Ohio is trying to solve some of the biggest challenges in the pallet recycling industry with a focus on reducing labor requirements and automating difficult tasks. Doug Wenninger, president of Alliance Automation, explained, “We are using lessons learned from other industries that are more highly automated to help the pallet industry advance.”
Industry feedback suggested automating pallet dismantling would help solve a major labor problem for one of the toughest jobs in a pallet facility. This led Alliance Automation to develop the first robotic bandsaw dismantlers deployed in North America. The Robotic Dismantler integrates with a specially designed bandsaw to quickly and efficiently remove boards no matter the pallet configuration.
Early adopters of the Alliance Robotic Dismantler quickly discovered that the next step in labor reduction would be to automate the board prepping process. Wenninger said, “We’ve seen companies reduce headcount by as many as 20 by introducing our systems. The labor savings is really what drove the innovation behind the Urban Sawmill.”
This cover story delves into how new technology from Alliance Automation has helped Bo’s Pallets, Northland Pallet of Hugo, Minnesota, and Atlanta Pallets & Services of Decatur, Georgia tackles their labor and production challenges. Alliance Automation has performed hundreds of installations across the country for pallet companies including its sorting systems and the Robotic Dismantler. Additional installations of the Urban Sawmill are actively taking place this year. Also, the company expanded its expertise in traditional recycling equipment by acquiring SMETCO last year. This provides Alliance Automation a wide variety of machinery options for customers. In addition, Alliance Automation is always willing to tackle new challenges for custom solutions.
The Recycling Factory of the Future…Today
The dream became a reality last Thanksgiving when Bo’s Pallets installed the Robotic Dismantlers and shortly after that put in the Urban Sawmill.
The Urban Sawmill is designed to handle the labor-intensive process of sorting and trimming random, odd-sized boards, which is a huge challenge for any pallet disassembly operation. The Urban Sawmill scans random deck and bottom boards for length, width and thickness. Boards are then optimized and trimmed to desired finished length. Individual sort bins capture the reclassified lumber of predetermined dimensions.
Bowen explained, “We were hoping to be able to make about 2,500 cuts per hour. The Urban Sawmill has turned us from having to buy wood on the open market to selling it to other companies. We are consistently cutting three thousand boards or more per hour. Today, we’re generating enough wood that my business is up about 60% over last year.”
Given the recent core crunch, the Urban Sawmill gives Bo’s Pallets the flexibility to accept and process a lot of junk cores that other companies would reject or grind up.
Bowen admitted, “The Urban Sawmill is a game changer, no doubt for every recycler out there. If you have enough volume to justify it, you need to consider one.”
Although the company didn’t get rid of any people, it did make their jobs easier, increased production and revenue is up 60%. More wood is going into higher uses, and the jobs on the line are easier to do and easier for the company to fill. Many of the jobs on the new Alliance line can be done by either men or women, big or small workers. Five people work on the Urban Sawmill; they are positioning boards, moving bins and monitoring everything to ensure that production keeps humming.
The Bo’s trim line has 12 drops with metal crates underneath. The system drops boards in the right bin based on size. Bowen said, “So, I can get as defined as I want to get on the cuts and sorts. This allows us to process lumber for specialty sizes. You set your own parameters, and this trim line is lightning fast.”
Looking at payback, Bowen explained, “The payback, for me, is in increased business. We are tracking to do $300,000 in wood sales this year. For a recycler, that never sold wood, that’s $300,000 new dollars.”
Previously, Bo’s Pallets had eight manual dismantlers and he could never keep enough operators to ensure they were all running at once. Today, he runs two Robotic Dismantlers and four manual dismantlers with one operator per machine.
With the new system, an operator quickly inspects the pallets and decides if it goes to robots or the manual dismantlers. He doesn’t do anything else. If a pallet is too rough and can’t handle the foam pads on the robot vacuum, he sends it to the manual dismantlers. The switch operator first gives pallets to the manual lines so that they stay busy. There are two roll conveyors on top of each other. The top roller conveyor is for pallets to be dismantled. The bottom conveyor is for pallets that are good as is or need to be repaired. These pallets can be sold to customers. The operator puts a barcode on the pallet, which is scanned along the way to get the pallet to the right station or stacker. A worker at the end of the Robotic Dismantler collects boards and puts them into crates for processing or a dumpster for trash material.
Analyzing disassembly costs, Bowen said, “When I crunch the numbers to operate the Robotic Dismantler, buying the pads, and the different things it takes to run, it’s 35 cents per pallet. That’s comparable to the costs associated with manual dismantling.”
Another major benefit is the ability to effectively take apart block pallets. Bowen commented, “We used to throw away a lot of block pallets. Not anymore. I send all block pallets to the robot because I’m going to get every piece of wood out of that block pallet.”
Robot Always Shows Up for Work – Tackling Today’s Labor Challenges
Atlanta Pallets and Services of Decatur, Georgia installed a Robotic Dismantler from Alliance Automation in April 2020. Driven by the tight labor market, Zilhad Dzihic, president of Atlanta Pallets and Services, explained, “The reason we invested in the Robotic Dismantler is that labor is so tight, and it is hard to find people who are willing to do physically demanding jobs anymore.”
The company previously had three two-man dismantlers and lost four of these workers to the construction industry. Dzihic said, “We made up for the lost production after some workers left, and now we have doubled, almost tripled our production with fewer workers. We don’t have problem staffing the robot, and we don’t have any injury problems anymore either.”
Atlanta Pallets installed one Robotic Dismantler due to footprint concerns. The company sold two of its old dismantlers and kept one as a backup machine. This traditional dismantler is used to process oversized or severely damaged pallets.
Inbound pallets from trailers are taken to the Robotic Dismantler to be inspected and sorted. The first operator sorts raw pallets distinguishing between pallets that can be sold, repaired or thrown away. This operator removes corrugated sheets and positions pallets on the conveyor leading to the robot.
The Robotic Dismantler picks up a pallet and usually completely disassembles it in three passes. The first pass removes the top deck boards. The second pass removes the stringers, and the third mini-pass removes the final stringer. A second operator picks up the boards and stringers and puts them on a conveyor for additional processing. Behind the dismantler are three chop saws. One station cuts only stringers. The other two stations cut only deck boards. Trimmed boards are hand stacked. The entire operation requires six workers. The old system usually involved 10-12 people. Dzihic admitted, “So, I almost cut in half the workforce and am doing the same or increased production.”
One thing that Dzihic was surprised about was the learning curve. He said, “It was really easy going from the get-go. The Alliance technicians were great. It took us about two weeks to train the staff and get everything dialed in right.”
One big benefit of the Robotic Dismantler is having a clean pallet yard. Dzihic explained, “So, we used to have piles of pallets. We didn’t know what to do with because we could not process as many as we get in a day using manual tear down. That process is very physically demanding. The Robotic Dismantler is much easier on the workers, and they don’t get tired as easily.”
From a safety perspective, the Robotic Dismantler is a no brainer. Dzihic commented, “The machine is well protected with a safety barrier. The Robotic Dismantler is much safer for the operator than a traditional bandsaw dismantler. My insurance carrier loves it due to the reduction in injury risk. We are very glad that we invested in this machine to adapt to the changing labor market.”
Early Adopter Finds Success
Northland Pallet in Hugo, Minnesota was one of the first companies to install a Robotic Dismantler in North America. While there were some hiccups at the start, Mitch Martin, president of Northland Pallet, is sure glad he took the gamble.
Reflecting on the primary benefit of the Robotic Dismantler, Martin said, “We are having trouble finding employees who want to work on a traditional bandsaw dismantler. The main driver behind our decision is the tough labor market. A secondary benefit is the safety and ease of use for the operator.”
Alliance Automation has offered tremendous service and support according to Martin. He admitted, “Since we had the second one ever built, yeah, we figured there would be some snags along the way. But I think a lot of those bugs have been worked out. They have made a lot of different changes through the years, and I am really happy with our partnership with Alliance Automation.”
In addition to the Robotic Dismantler, Northland uses one manual bandsaw dismantler for the longer, larger pallets, and a secondary bandsaw for normal sized pallets due to the volume the recycler receives.
The Robotic Dismantler saves wear and tear on employees because the robot handles the tough job of pushing a pallet through the saw. The entire process at Northland starts with the forklift driver bringing pallets to the robot operator. He will sort out recoverable pallets from absolute junk, set aside those pallets that can be sold as is and send those down the conveyor that need to be taken apart by the robot.
Martin advised, “The key is to make sure that there’s always pallets rolling down that conveyor, so the robot isn’t waiting for a pallet.”
The operator will tear off broken boards, and he’ll pound those nails down so that it doesn’t damage the foam on the robot arm. He has a choice on the control panel, one of four different types of pallets that will tell the robot what it is, and then the robot sizes it up and runs the pallet through the saw a few times.
A severely damaged pallet may be diverted to a manual bandsaw or simply thrown to the grinder. All the boards coming out of the Robotic Dismantler land on a table. The operator for the trim saw grabs boards and runs them through the chop saw. He will also separate stringers and move them to the side.
One challenge early in the process was to find the right speed for the machine. Martin explained, “One of the things Alliance did was to slow down the machine as it runs the pallet through the bandsaw. This helped significantly by ensuring boards were cut in fewer passes through the saw.”
Innovation Requires Risks, Failure and Tweaking
For innovation to continue, it is important to take the plunge and become early adopters. Wenninger credited the companies that took the risk to try the Robotic Dismantler. He said, “I’m very thankful for the early adopters of this technology that partnered with us and helped us through the early debug process. Joe McKinney at McVantage Packaging, Mitch Martin at Northland Pallet, and Rick Ziebell and the crew at J&B Pallet – they were all willing to take a risk on us when most of the industry was still very skeptical, and I can’t thank them enough.”
While the first Robotic Dismantler was not perfect, Alliance Automation has worked with customers to tweak machines, make improvements and iron out the bugs. Wenninger stated, “Since the first systems were shipped, we have drastically reduced overall cycle time, improved blade life, and really expanded the overall mix of pallets that can run across this machine. There’s virtually no style of pallet that the Robotic Dismantler can’t process in the 30×30 up to 60×60 dimension range.”
Given the difficulty in finding good quality pallets and lumber, and the need for more efficient processes, the time has come for the Robotic Dismantler and the Urban Sawmill.
