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Customer
Australian Water Bottling Company
Australia Industry Bottled Water |
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After years of manually palletizing 10-liter water jugs, an Australian water bottling company set out to automate its end-of-line operation. The company needed a solution that could fit within a limited footprint while handling both standard pallets and smaller ALDI pallets without compromising pallet stability.
Working closely with TopTier, the customer implemented a customized low infeed palletizing solution designed specifically for its facility and production requirements.
The Challenge
Until 2021, the company relied entirely on manual palletizing and hand wrapping for its 10-liter water jugs.
The process was labor intensive, time consuming, and increasingly difficult to staff. At the same time, the company faced a significant facility constraint. Available floor space was limited, making a compact automation solution essential.
The project also introduced a unique engineering challenge. In addition to standard pallets, the customer needed to palletize on ALDI pallets measuring just 23 inches by 30.5 inches, significantly smaller than the pallet sizes TopTier had previously handled.
The Solution
Working with TopTier Director of Sales Dave Snelson, the project began with product testing at TopTier's U.S. facility to confirm the company could successfully palletize the customer's 10-liter water jugs while maintaining the required nesting pattern for stable pallet loads.
Following successful testing, TopTier proposed an L7 low infeed palletizer designed to palletize 21 bottles per layer at a rate of 22 bottles per minute.
As the project progressed, TopTier developed several custom engineering solutions to accommodate the customer's requirements for both standard and ALDI pallets.
These modifications included:
- A custom insert for the pallet dispenser
- New guide mechanisms for the load build area
- Custom change parts for the layer head
- Custom change parts for the tier sheet inserter
The finished system successfully handled both pallet sizes while maintaining the compact footprint required by the facility.
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Results
The project helped the company: Reduce manual palletizing of 25-pound water jugs Approximately one year after the project began, the system was installed and operational.
According to the project team, the customer selected TopTier because of its concurrent stretch wrapping capability, compact footprint, and willingness to engineer a solution around the application's unique challenges. |
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TopTier's Role
TopTier worked closely with the customer from initial product testing through system design and final installation.
Rather than offering a standard machine configuration, the team engineered multiple custom modifications to meet the customer's operational requirements while maintaining reliable palletizing performance.
The project demonstrates TopTier's ability to adapt its palletizing technology to unique applications and facility constraints without compromising performance.
Every production environment presents different challenges. Whether you're working within a limited footprint, handling multiple pallet sizes, or looking to automate a labor-intensive process, TopTier designs palletizing systems tailored to your operation.
Contact our team to discuss your application.
