The Unload Stop Just Disappeared From Sheet Metal Cutting
Lantek, the Spanish CAD/CAM software specialist for sheet metal fabrication, has partnered with machine builder TECOI on a robotic unloading and palletising system announced this month. The problem it targets is familiar to every fabricator: traditional handling forces the cutting operation to stop before unloading can begin, so table time is lost on every single sheet.
What They Built
After cutting on TECOI's CF modular multi-head platform, a servo-controlled crane with liftable magnetic technology moves processed sheets to an intermediate handling area.
Robots fitted with adaptive grippers then identify, collect, and palletise parts on instructions generated by Lantek Expert.
The software analyses component geometry and orientation so only identical parts with the same positioning are grouped, producing stable pallets with full traceability through production and logistics.
How The Line Runs Now
Palletising runs in parallel with cutting instead of after it, so the cutting heads never wait for the handling to finish.
The design is collaborative-robot-based: extra robotic units can be added and synchronised as volumes grow, scaling from small workshops to high-capacity plants.
The system feeds the Sortec framework, an initiative targeting automation of the full line from sheet processing to final palletising.
Why It Works
The intelligence sits in the software layer, not the robot. Lantek's OEM channel director describes the coordination logic as the real advance: each robot receives accurate instructions at the right moment, so digitalisation does the sequencing that a human material handler used to do between cuts.