The pallet industry has entered the golden era of pallet automation technology, and a major pioneer in this space is Alliance Automation of Van Wert, Ohio. The company behind the Robotic Pallet Dismantler and the Urban Sawmill has a number of productivity tools and advanced automation to introduce this year.
The Pallet Enterprise recently sat down with experts from Alliance to discuss these technologies and how they can help solve customer problems.
AI-Driven Productivity and Real-time Insights for the Pallet Industry
One of the most powerful tools now deployed across the pallet industry is Zira, an AI-driven vision telematics system and camera designed to track production, detect inefficiencies, and automate operational insights in real time. Zira is live in a vast number of deployments serving both industry giants and small businesses alike, with notable names such as UFP Industries, Millwood, Ongweoweh, among many others. Zira leverages AI-driven cameras, no larger than a smartphone, to monitor production in real-time, providing accurate counts, measuring output efficiency, identifying bottlenecks, and reducing downtime through proactive alerts. It eliminates reliance on manual end-of-shift tabulations, which are prone to errors, delays, and inconsistencies.
Ben Long, manager of international market development for Alliance Automation, highlighted the challenge of data collection in the industry: “Many pallet operations are still very manual, making it difficult to gather accurate and actionable insights. By installing a camera, companies gain a real time, automated view of production and process performance, eliminating the need for unreliable manual tracking.”
Instead of reinventing the wheel, Alliance has decided to partner with Zira to integrate its AI-Driven insights into various pallet operations, from dismantling stations to saw lines. This collaboration enhances automation across all aspects of pallet processing, including cutting, repair, and sorting.
For example, Long said, “Envision one of these cameras above a manual dismantling station. It identifies pallets as an associate picks them up and places it on the dismantler. The camera and software count the pallet, measure the size, counts the number of boards. It can do some basic pallet condition analysis. This is a true AI-based system. Whatever you can see, you can count and analyze.”
Elhay Farkash, CEO of Zira, emphasized that while the system continuously evolves, it is already driving significant efficiency gains in active deployments: “Zira has been live for some time now, providing real time insights at scale. Our models continuously improve as we collect more data, but even today, Zira can detect pallet size, count boards, and analyze pallet condition and features. We are not just testing – Zira is actively optimizing pallet operations for the biggest names in the industry.”
This AI-based system operates beyond basic counting and tracking-it can analyze motion, object conditions and features, and workflow interactions and movement, providing deep insights into labor effectiveness, production rates, and quality features.
Why wait to react to problems at the end of a shift when you can take immediate action?
Jake Ness, business development manager at Zira said, “The key thought here is not just collecting data but having it structured so that you can be proactive with it. Not just collecting the data at the end of the day, but allowing management to act quickly.”
Can the system identify wrong steps or practices? Long commented, “For me, it’s too broad a question. If you can see it, we can model it. But specific data requirements depend on a case-by-case basis.” Some popular functions include counting pallets, setting pallets processed per hour, identifying areas that are lagging, tracking downtime, etc.
Exploring how the technology works, Farkash said, “Unlike traditional surveillance, Zira does not store hours of video—it extracts meaningful data from video feeds and securely processes insights in the cloud, ensuring efficiency without excessive data storage concerns.”
There are three things that you can detect. You can detect the object, the feature and movement. The object is the pallet. The feature is the number of boards or color for example. And the movement could be the relationship between two detections. If a person is moving a hand or pallet to a direction where he/she shouldn’t, you can detect that action, according to Zira.
Farkash acknowledged, “Alliance Automation and Zira are actively integrating AI-powered data collection into various machinery and production workflows across major pallet operations. Whether monitoring trim saw efficiency, pallet dismantling, repair line throughput, or material flow, Zira has proven its ability to increase yield, reduce inefficiencies, and provide instant insights for smarter decision-making.”
Zira is available via a subscription model with affordable hardware costs, making it accessible for companies of all sizes looking to leverage AI for smarter, faster decision-making.
When it comes to ROI, Long explained, “Zira’s impact is already measurable. Customers who deploy Zira and actively use it to optimize operations are seeing 10-15% productivity gains, particularly in manual teardown and assembly stations.”
Zira is a subscription system plus the costs for the cameras. The price point makes it accessible for companies of all size. For more information visit, https://www.joinzira.com/pallets or call Alliance to explore specific integrations with your existing processes.
Automated Board Feeding: How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck?
Automatic board loading is not new. A number of European pallet nailing machinery providers have offered it for a while. And it is an area that other machinery companies have explored or developed solutions to accomplish. Alliance Automation has been working on its board feeding system for a while and has just announced the Woodchuck Board Loader designed to fit Viking nailing machines.
What makes the Woodchuck unique is its functionality and price point. Alliance hopes to add compatibility with other nailers, but it is starting with Viking given the number of existing machines on the market.
Long said, “The operators who are feeding those machines are also doing a lot of quality control on the boards. So, we have included a vision inspection system for the boards and can reject those that don’t meet the criteria.”
The Woodchuck provides fully automated inspection and loading of either stringers or deck boards or both. A robot picks up a layer of boards and takes them to a system where they are singulated and inspected. Problem boards can be kicked out or turned to ensure any curved boards are nailed with the flat surface area on top. The Woodchuck offers eight second cycle times and be deployed as a fully automated system or just to automate certain loading functions. It uses the same camera system to monitor quality that is deployed in the Urban Sawmill and the Badger trim saw lines. The inspection camera is looking for wane on the board, knots or missing center material.
When it comes to labor savings, Long predicted, “You can take what is normally a 4-5 man operation down to one… It is probably a little over a two-year payback with one shift operations.”
The Woodchuck can work well for any sized pallet that can be produced on a Viking not just 48x40s. It comes with a ten-minute changeover time. Long said that compared to other fully automated solutions currently on the market, the Woodchuck will be much cheaper.
M-2 Pallet Dismantler Offers New Versatility Pallet Disassembly and Repair
Alliance Automation has released significant upgrades to its popular Robotic Dismantler with its M-2 model. The changes are based on feedback from the almost 80 Robotic Dismantler system in the field.
The M-2 does not require a foam attachment. Instead, it uses an end of arm tool that allows for easy pallet prep and component removal. Browning Sheehan, the chief revenue officer for Alliance, said, “The M-2 has the potential to do component removal. So, you can take out stringers. You can take off lead boards, bottom deck boards. You can do partial tear down or full teardown.”
This added functionality can take place because Alliance has developed a gripper arm tool instead of the traditional foam attachment. Some users had asked if there was a way to eliminate this consumable part of the process because they only dismantle certain sizes or qualities. The foam tool was originally used because it allowed for picking up a wider variety of sizes and pallet conditions.
Sheehan pointed out that the M-2 dismantler requires less maintenance and can fit in a smaller footprint. Alliance recently announced that the arm tool can be retrofitted on older machines. This component will be ready to offer customers in the second quarter of 2025. The M-2 will be ready to release at the beginning of the third quarter. The new M-2 starts out at a much lower price point than the original Robotic Dismantler.
Sheehan suggested, “The M-2 creates a lower barrier to entry and a much quicker ROI.”
Specialty and Odd-Sized Pallet Production
Alliance Automation has partnered with STAKMA, a Lithuania producer of woodworking equipment, to offer the PALLETMAX in North America. Long said, “The PALLETMAX works well for low-volume, high changeover pallet and crate applications. It is ideal for large, odd-sized pallets.”
The PALLETMAX features an inclined jig with removable and adjustable templates for holding the boards and stringers. A human operator loads the boards, while an automated nailing gantry nails the pallet. A robot can be added to flip or stack large pallets or crates. The PALLETMAX can accommodate pallet sizes up to 32 feet long.
Long suggested, “The PALLETMAX eliminates manual production for large, odd-sized pallets. It is ideal for companies that produce a few hundred specialty pallets per week and have maybe up to 10 different sizes/SKUs.”
The PALLETMAX is a smaller, simpler version of the full crate systems that Alliance has developed. Long admitted, “We are very excited about the PALLETMAX because it fits for more people from an ROI standpoint, and it is very easy to program.”
For more information on STAKMA, contact Alliance Automation.
High-speed Sortation
Alliance has also worked with some major recyclers on high-speed sortation systems. Sheehan said, “We have adapted some of our systems to enable peak production between 800 to 1,000 pallets per hour.”
Sheehan added, “Where the speed really helps is in the repair lines. Where the bottleneck is in the repair lines is the repair operators. You can overcome that by having more repair tables.”
There are lots of places to automate and improve pallet plants. The big question may be, “What do I tackle first?”
