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Location:
Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, France
Sector:
Food / Beverage
Application:
Palletizing, pallett handling
In the beverage industry, efforts to optimize production lines typically focus on core process steps such as filling or packaging. At these stages, availability and speed directly determine output. At the same time, practical experience shows that downstream processes also have a major impact on overall performance. Although they are rarely the main focus, they play a key role in how stable and continuous a line actually runs. Especially in pallet handling, many structures have evolved over the years. Conveyor technology, forklift traffic, and manual interventions are closely interconnected and work reliably, but adapting them to new requirements is often complex.
Modern palletizing solutions are highly capable and technologically mature. They meet today’s requirements in terms of speed, precision, and integration into a wide range of line concepts. In actual operation, however, another aspect comes into focus: interaction with the surrounding material flow. This interface ultimately determines how efficiently a solution performs in everyday use. A real-world example highlights how this area can be further developed.
Customer: Sidel
Location: Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, France
Sector: Food / Beverage / Home care and personal care products
Applications: Palletizing, pallet handling
Sidel develops solutions for the beverage and packaging industry and is one of the globally recognized providers in filling, packaging, and palletizing. At its site in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, France, around 200 employees work on robotics and end-of-line technologies. The focus is no longer just on individual machines, but on the interaction of complete production and logistics processes.
A new perspective on material flow
With the RoboAccess_Pal S, Sidel has developed a palletizing solution that addresses all requirements of beverage producers. The machine has a compact design, can be flexibly deployed across different lines, and allows safe operator access – for both removing finished pallets and supplying empty ones. Thanks to its motorized column, pallet heights of over two meters can be achieved. Technically, the solution is mature. And precisely for that reason, another decisive factor becomes apparent in practical use. What the RoboAccess_Pal S initially lacked was neither performance nor functionality, it was connectivity to the next process step. At end-of-line, the same critical moment always arises. Finished pallets must be removed while new ones must be provided at the right time. Traditionally, this flow was organized using extensive infrastructure that requires space, causes maintenance effort, and offers limited flexibility.
Sidel deliberately chose not to expand conventional pallet handling systems. Instead of adding more infrastructure, the existing solution was enhanced together with SEW USOCOME and SEW-EURODRIVE by integrating an autonomous transport system directly at the machine. This vehicle takes on two tasks simultaneously: it removes finished pallets from the process while supplying new ones. As a result, an entire process step becomes redundant.
Proven drive technology at the core
Inside the vehicle, technology from the SEW EURODRIVE portfolio is used throughout. A servo gearmotor provides movement, controlled via a flexible MOVIMOT® inverter and the MOVI-C® CONTROLLER UHX25A. Power is supplied contactlessly via the MOVITRANS® inductive system, enabling fast intermediate charging at defined points. These technologies are not new — they are proven. SEW-EURODRIVE has been developing and producing driverless transport systems for around ten years and brings this experience directly into the solution.
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Standard platform instead of custom solution
The deployed solution is based on a standardized vehicle platform. A key factor is adaptability: an interface plate connects the vehicle to the respective load. This allows not only different pallet formats but also containers or unpackaged goods to be transported, without modifying the platform itself.
What changes at end-of-line
By integrating mobile robotics, material flow becomes leaner and better aligned with real-world requirements. The need for fixed infrastructure decreases, while flexibility for layout or process changes increases. This is a key advantage, especially in existing systems, as adjustments can be made without fundamentally altering the line structure. It is not only about material flow. Safety is often overlooked. Intensive forklift traffic regularly creates critical situations. Automated transport systems reduce manual intervention and replace traffic movements altogether. As a result, safety increases not just locally, but across the entire system.
This collaboration is not a one-off. Sidel and SEW-EURODRIVE have been working together for years in drive technology and automation solutions for packaging machines. The integration of the transport system is therefore the logical next step in this partnership. At first glance, the approach may seem subtle, but in day-to-day operation its impact is clearly noticeable. Sidel is not replacing a machine or a single process step. Sidel is replacing an approach. Instead of building up additional technology, existing complexity is reduced and complemented by a flexible, integrated solution. Combined with SEW-EURODRIVE’s drive technology, this creates an end-of-line setup that requires less space, causes less maintenance, and is both safer and more adaptable. The difference lies not in more technology, but in a system that works better together.
Mobile robotics has arrived in industry. Autonomous transport vehicles (AGVs/AMRs) move materials, supply production lines, and take over tasks that were long considered part of traditional intralogistics. Especially in the beverage industry, where high throughput and standardized processes dominate, the benefits are clear: more efficient transport, fewer manual interventions, and a higher degree of automation. This effect is amplified by growing product variety, more frequent format changes, and increasing demand for flexibility. In this environment, flexible material flow creates real value. Mobile robotics decouples material flow from fixed infrastructure and makes it mobile. Instead of moving goods along predefined lines, flexible processes emerge that can be adapted dynamically. This fundamentally shifts the perspective — from simply transporting goods from A to B to designing a flexible, continuous overall system.
A key success factor lies in the availability of standardized platforms. Modern autonomous transport vehicles can be used for different loads and adapted to specific requirements through interfaces. This makes deployment easier both in new facilities and in the step-by-step integration into existing environments. Projects remain manageable and can be implemented with predictable effort. This clearly demonstrates the added value of SEW-EURODRIVE and its robotics solutions.
Our customers’ requirements in the end-of-line area clearly focus on automation to replace manual tasks that can be physically demanding for operators. They expect solutions that are reliable, simple, cost-efficient, and compact enough to integrate into their industrial environment.Fabien Chiron, Head of End-of-Line Development and Innovation at Sidel
“Primarily in the end-of-line area. Mobile systems handle tasks such as sorting and transporting pallets, for example to outbound logistics, sorting systems, or packaging cells. Around the filling line, we also see clear use cases: supplying materials like labels or removing waste such as damaged bottles or glass. And the potential goes even further, across the entire intralogistics chain, wherever material needs to be moved flexibly and reliably.”
“The biggest lever is flexibility. Mobile robotics decouples material flow from rigid conveyor structures. Processes can be adapted, layouts changed, capacity scaled. Especially in the beverage industry – with constantly evolving products, container sizes, and line concepts – this adaptability becomes a real competitive advantage.The mobile robots are modular in design and offer flexibility, efficiency, and adaptability for future-proof, smart automation in production, assembly, and logistics. They can be seamlessly integrated into both new installations and modernization.”
“The most important point is to consider mobile robotics as an integral part of the system architecture from the very beginning. At the same time, standardized, modular approaches help: platform solutions that are readily available (‘platform to go’) make projects much easier to implement. They enable fast commissioning and work both in retrofit scenarios and new plant design.”
“Mobile robotics is no longer an add-on. It is a core building block for flexible, future-ready production and logistics concepts. Its full potential unfolds when integrated from the start, but it also offers clear competitive advantages in retrofit projects.”