Canada: "It fills up to 15 trays per minute with minimal supervision"

In July 2024, Slappendel Greenhouses of Fenwick, Ontario, reached out to Bold Robotics to address a bottleneck in their planting process. Slappendel had been manually placing pots into pocket trays and stacking numerous skids of pre-filled trays before each day of operation. This resulted in a "tray mountain" that occupied valuable warehouse space and consumed operator time that could be better spent on other tasks.

Slappendel required a machine capable of filling up to 15 trays per minute with minimal supervision, aside from loading stacks of trays and pots. Bold Robotics rose to the challenge and developed the PM-71 Pot in Tray Machine. The machine went into production in December 2024, just five months after the initial discussions began. "Since then, the machine has placed over 225,000 pots into trays and has been 'running like a dream'", says Bill VandenOever of Bold Robotics.

Early stages
Slappendel researched various commercially available solutions and found that existing options were either too slow for their production process or not reliable enough to handle the trays they were using. As a result, Slappendel turned to Bold Robotics' team of engineers to develop a solution that would be robust, user-friendly, and specifically designed to meet the demands of a North American grower, he explains. "The solution needed to handle both 3.5-inch pots and 6-inch pots, placing them into the appropriate trays. The 3.5-inch pots would go into an 18-pocket tray, while the 6-inch pots needed to be placed into a 6-pocket tray. The changeover time from 3.5-inch to 6-inch pots had to be minimized to maintain high system availability."

Engineering challenges
After preliminary testing and evaluating various design concepts, Bold Robotics settled on a design that would provide the most efficient pot placing solution. "To achieve the goal of 15 trays per minute, the machine needed to dispense 6 pots, 45 times per minute, equating to a cycle time of 1.33 seconds per cycle. During shop testing, various optimizations were made to meet (and even exceed) the targeted production rate."

Another design challenge was accommodating the two pot sizes while minimizing changeover time. "Bold Robotics collaborated with Eisele Connectors to implement a single connection that could handle both pneumatic hoses and electrical connections in one plug. This innovation reduced the number of connections that needed to be disconnected and reconnected during product changeover."

Finally, the design had to be compact, as space is always at a premium in the potting area. "The machine developed by BOLD Robotics has a footprint of 5 by 7 feet, which includes both the tray destacking and pot dispensing functions in a single machine. All operator functions and changeover points are easily accessible from the side of the machine."

Conclusion
According to VandenOever, the collaboration between Slappendel Greenhouses and Bold Robotics was a great success. "Bold was able to meet all the project's requirements within the allocated budget and timeline."

Brandon Barends, the Greenhouse Manager at Slappendel Greenhouses, stated, "Overall, the experience working together [with Bold] on this project was and continues to be seamless and productive. You stand behind your machines and accommodate within reason, and that's something that seems to be lacking from a lot of suppliers these days."

VandenOever: "The machine itself has been a resounding success, easily keeping up with the demand from the soil filling and planting systems and running without any hiccups. Slappendel Greenhouses has reclaimed much valuable space, as the 'tray mountain' has completely disappeared, and operators have grown confident in the machine's ability to outpace production."

Future development opportunities for this machine include customization to be able to handle different pot sizes and geometries, he concludes.