ReAutomated Adds Robot Palletising and Case Packing Cells to Existing South African Packing Lines Without Stripping Out the Conveyors

The Kempton Park integrator retrofits robot cells, cobots, guarding and controls onto live packing lines, starting from a survey of the line already on site.

KEMPTON PARK, South Africa – Plenty of South African packing halls still end the old way: a conveyor runs out at a pallet, and two people lift every carton by hand for the whole shift. The conveyor, the case erector and the wrapper are often still in good order. ReAutomated, a robotics integrator in Spartan, Kempton Park, has published its range of robotic retrofits for packing and palletising lines for plants that want to automate those last few metres without buying a new line.

Built around what is already on the floor

The range covers carton, bag, shrink pack, drum and mixed case palletisers, single line and dual line cells, and high infeed and low level layouts for conveyors that discharge at awkward heights. On the packing side there are case packer, bottle and can packing retrofits, pouch packing cells, tray loading robots and crate handling robots. Supporting kit includes slip sheet feeders, pallet dispensers, turntables and layer forming units, with vacuum, clamp and bag grippers on a quick-change system for lines that run more than one pack.

Every project starts with a site line survey. Conveyor heights, transfer points, guarding, access routes and operator movement are checked, along with the real bottleneck on the line. Sometimes that is not the lifting at all.

“Half the time the robot isn’t the problem. The cases arrive skew, or two at once, and the cell spends its day waiting or correcting,” said ReAutomated’s controls and commissioning lead. “We would rather fix the infeed and the spacing first. A cobot on a well-fed line will outwork a big robot on a badly fed one.”

Cobot or full cell

ReAutomated recommends a cobot where floor space is tight and products are light to medium, and a traditional robot cell where duty cycles are higher or more reach is needed. Sound conveyors stay; transfer points change only where product orientation is inconsistent. The company also asks customers to allow for future pack sizes, so a cell does not have to be rebuilt the first time marketing changes a carton.

Guarding, controls and handover

Each cell gets its own risk assessment and guard design: access gates for clearing jams and service work, emergency stops within easy reach, and light curtains or interlocks where operators enter the area. Controls integration ties the cell into the existing conveyor signals, start and stop logic and fault handling. Commissioning is planned around live production with dry runs and product trials, and operators are trained on reset steps and safe clearing before the line is handed back.

The team works with food, beverage, consumer goods and building products plants in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and Gqeberha, and checks coastal humidity, dust and washdown rules before a design is signed off. Site surveys can be booked through the ReAutomated website.

About ReAutomated

ReAutomated retrofits robotic packing and palletising cells, conveyor integration, safety guarding and controls onto existing production lines from its base in Spartan, Kempton Park, for manufacturers across South Africa. It is part of the same South African trade network as am.co.za. ReAutomated is operated by Astros Marketing (Pty) Ltd, 2 Makro Place, Sunnyrock 1401.

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