Case Study: McVantage Group boosts pallet recycling with Yaskawa Motoman robotic disassembly

McVantage Group cuts wooden pallet disassembly cycle time to 30 seconds with Yaskawa Motoman

McVantage Group, a leading manufacturer and recycler of wooden packaging products, faced a significant challenge in its labor-intensive manual process for disassembling recycled wooden pallets. The dangerous, noisy work made it difficult to retain employees and reliably meet production demands. They partnered with Yaskawa Motoman and its integration partner, Alliance Automation, to pioneer a first-of-its-kind robotic solution for this application.

The solution implemented by Yaskawa Motoman featured an MH225 robot equipped with a custom gripper and a proprietary control system to disassemble pallets by moving them through a bandsaw. This automated system dramatically improved reliability and safety while increasing production yield. The cycle time was reduced from a target of 60 seconds to an impressive 30 seconds per pallet, allowing McVantage to redeploy workers to less demanding roles and significantly boost its lumber recycling capabilities.

McVantage Group