OCME S.r.l.

Palletising consists in placing boxes of products on a support, usually wooden (called, precisely, a pallet) in order to facilitate moving many products simultaneously without subjecting them to undue stress.

 

The birth of palletisers, machines that stack the products on the pallets, dates back to the second World War, when the American army had to move enormous amounts of goods towards Europe; the use of nets was thus replaced by more standardised units, which where therefore easier to insert into an integrated logistics system. Over the years, the pallet’s original role as a logistic unit has evolved and pallets are increasingly being adapted to the world of modern distribution; aesthetics, functionality, smaller packages are only some of the aspects that influence the development of new palletisers and the connected auxiliary systems.

 

If we look at a modern-day palletising machine and compare it to one that dates back even only ten years, we may note significant differences which, in a sense, reflect the changes that have come about in consumer buying habits and consequently in distributor points of sale. The macro-trend of renewed environmental awareness indicates that the weight and quantity of packaging materials is bound to diminish in the future (the byproduct of which are increased economic savings for packagers); this fact will therefore influence the fragility and instability mostly of primary containers, but it will also impact some types of multiple packages, which will become increasingly difficult to handle. Add to this the fact that distributors, such as discount stores, cash-and-carry stores, large wholesalers, and not only, are more and more often bringing an entire pallet of products onto the sales floor and, as a result, the pallet must also meet aesthetic requirements, mostly tied to the correct orientation of the labels (facing outwards) of the products positioned on the external-most rows on the pallet.