Reeco Appoints Irish Palletiser Partner

ATC Automation, well-established automation supplier in Ireland, has been appointed as a Reeco Approved Partner for the RB1200Palletiser. The partnership enables greater access to solutions within Ireland, providing a greater depth of technical support and reducing investment risk.

The RB1200 palletiser, a product made in collaboration between Reeco & Omron, has seen huge growth in demand due to its ability to solve manufacturing challenges such as operational flexibility, ease of use, and floor space limitations. The RB1200 is complete with Omron hardware which is combined and interfaced through a visually intuitive programming tool, ‘EasyStack’.

The new venture between ATC and Reeco comes through their mutual relationship with Omron, ATC being an Omron partner for 30 years and Reeco being the Collaborative Robot (Cobot) and Autonomous Mobile Robot(AMR) solution partner for the UK.

Formed in 1991, ATC are a technical distributor of automation components who specialise in machines, controls, machine vision and cobots. Having integration capabilities and a depth of knowledge in Omron hardware, they are now a distributor for the RB1200 Palletiser in Ireland.

Gareth Pugh, Technical Sales at Reeco Automation says: “ATChave a long history in automation, their 30 years of experience with Omron equipment makes them a highly valuable partner. The hope is that we can utilise our combined industry knowledge to deliver unique solutions to the Irish market with the support of mutual partner, Omron.”

There is an increasing level of uptake in new end-of-line solutions caused by the continued challenges faced by manufacturers such as labour, flexibility, and cost. Gareth says: “When trying to improve productivity manufacturers are rightly addressing upstream issues first, however as these improvements take place we are seeing an increasing demand for end-of-line equipment and a need for new, alternative solutions.”

Cathal Maguire, Sales Manager at ATC Automation explains: "There is a need to automate end of line processes in a very agile and efficient way, I think the development of solutions for that purpose, like Reeco’s, are driving the market.” Cathal goes on to say: “Our mission statement is about trying to improve quality and productivity for end users, so we see this as a partnership which will help us achieve this.”

The current labour crisis is causing issues throughout the entire supply chain, without finding ways to meet production targets with less staff, manufacturing plants cannot deliver results. Cathal adds: “We’ve come across several companies who are manually stacking boxes at the end of the line, we see this as a use of a scarce resource. There is a continuing need to drive productivity within manufacturing; it will be difficult to achieve this without automating end-of-line processes that are currently reliant on labour resources.”

The challenges solved by the RB1200 palletiser have caused it to gain much interest within the UK and throughout Europe, its compact design, ease of deployment and reduced automation complexity accommodates a wide range of deployment possibilities. Cathal explains: “Many manufacturers have expanded over a number of years, but have done so using their existing facilities, so floor space is becoming an increasingly important issue, and for that reason Reeco’s solution is very unique.”

With ATC Automation now on board as a Reeco approved partner, Reeco are looking to expand their network with other system support integrators, who like ATC, are able to extend access to solutions such as theRB1200 palletiser.

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