Robotic Pallet Dismantling in 30 Seconds 

Guy making pallets on the other end of the conveyor: "Hey, I just got through making those pallets. What the F."

Engineer#1: What do you do for a living? Engineer#2: I build machines that dismantle pallets. What do you do? Engineer#1: I build machines that make pallets.

The pallets they are destroying look better than the ones I'm using right now.

The weirdest thing is the disconnect between companies that need pallets and the companies trying to get rid of pallets. They need to close the loop and fully recycle them.

I'm getting PTSD flashbacks from my 10 years experience working in a warehouse. All day long was a desperate struggle to find even a single good pallet without a whole corner missing. Now, here's a dedicated robotic machine that cuts up perfectly usable pallets because they aren't "good enough".

I ran a construction company in Upper Michigan for many years. Old pallet + skill saw = free home heat (just remember to empty the nails out of the ash-pan occasionally)

I think I’ll rush out and buy one today!

This thing looks like a quarter-million dollar solution to a ten-dollar-an-hour problem.

If anyone asks why I'm hammering broken drill bits and shards of files into pallets, I'll remind them this is a band saw blade factory.

When I was a kid we had a wood burning heater and a lot of out wood came from a pallet manufacturer. They would make new pallets and accept old broken pallets and they would reclaim much of the good boards. So my dad would load up his truck with all the broken boards that they gave away and we'd use it for heat. Later when I turned 15 I started working at that pallet manufacturer. I being 15 couldn't use the power saws but I could disassemble the broken pallets and reclaim the good boards. Using a hammer and a pry bar was fun for about 5 minutes. Then it just became work. I can tell ya, this is so so much quicker than doing it by hand.

Wow, it works with absolutely pristine, perfectly formed pallets. Robots always work well with perfectly specified objects. Unfortunately, the real world doesn't offer up many perfectly formed objects.

Quite an amazing machine indeed! Taking pallets apart by hand is a real chore.

You guys are great! The comments guys that is. Youve already covered everything i came here to say. The perfect even clean pallets theyre destroying, ole Bert just out of sight (they sent hime on break so you couldnt hear him nailing them together) building pallets...you covered it all! Loool

Nice! This will pay for itself in 2000 years (If it lasts that long)

Very nice robotics! Amazing how it tilts during cuts for optimum angle.

Motoman....cool! The first time I ever saw a robot it was 1984 in "The Terminator" and the robot was a "Motoman". It was one of the coolest things I ever remember seeing back then, a time when having a BOOM-BOX was a big deal. LOL!

I like how it slightly angles the pallet to edge the saw along the pallet ribs.

RU-vids algorithm knows me better than I do

You know humanity is going extinct when we already have pallet dismantling robots.

This is the best pallet dismantler I've ever seen.

Quite the coffee table making operation they got going there

wow thats some serious engineering !

Thanks for the video, that's a neat operation.

Actually quite mesmerising!

I used to heat my house from pallet wood. Burned about 1200 - 1500 of them a year. A 12" electric chop saw with carbide demolition blade makes almost as easy of work out of breaking them down to a size a wood-fired boiler can handle with ease.

Why dismantle the pallets I ask? They are perfectly good to be reused as pallets

I’ll get one of those tomorrow, and step up my production line!!

My first job as a kid was at my great uncle's job. It was an onion shed in Arvin, Ca (Maisie's). My 2nd cousin and myself had to breakdown pallets with a claw hammer and build new ones. Boy I wish I had this tech back then.

wow thats precision pallet disassembly.

Imagine being from the 15th century and seeing this. You would think it was some kind of supernatural alien being...... Imagine what the world will be like in 500 years from now.......

Worked with these machines there crazy fast trying to keep up is challenging and trying to sort it even harder

Thank you, RU-vid Recommendations Roulette. I always wanted my own pallet disassembler.

Do they have a name for that machine ? ? Call it "The Mosquito"

These pallets look perfectly fine. Why?

To anyone wondering why they're using perfectly good pallets: it's probably because they're testing the machine.

So satisfying to watch!

There’s a story about Henry Ford requiring the deliveries to his factories to use hardwood pallets, which he then recycled to build more factory floor from it... - something like that.

The place I used to take old and damaged pallets to just threw them into the big chipper for biomass fuel.

My favorite video of the year...

Muy bueno, la cierra puede tener filo de ambos lados, cortado mas rápido y simplemente con un giro

5-million dollar machine can do it in 30-seconds, but it takes 5 seconds to throw on my bonfire for free.

There's sensor at each side of a blade detecting down force, as soon as its detected lateral movement starts maintaining the same level...clever.

Bad Pallet circa 1985: less than 3 boards total. Bad Pallet 2021: Divot in the paint.

This was very satisfying

Yeah. Great. But what happens to all the cut nails in the salvaged pieces of wood?

How often do they have to change the saw blade and how long does that take?

Very cool. I wonder how often that blade breaks and whether there's a blade welder on the machine.

This reminds me of when I was working, designing 'one armed bandits.' People used to ask me how to cheat them. I'd say, 'Easy, just take a crowbar to the cash box!' This system of pallet dismantle is so effortless, simple, direct and elegant. .

Why dismantle the pallets on an industrial level? What do they use the wood for? Just curious.

Blade is most impressive. Every little spark is a nail being cut.

nice work feathering blade

Somewhere out there is a robot making pallets. The robotic circle of life.

Yea I guess this would be worth having now with prices of lumber where they are.

I really must get a life lol Watching this after it took me two hours at the weekend to do one by hand!

Now THIS is some great ASMR- Watch with no sound 👌

Now I know my and computer are listening to me. All I did was call ONCE to a guy I work with and ask him if we had any pallets I could use for firewood stacking. Then this shows up on my feed. Nice.

Seems like an awfully expensive machine when the other option is to pay low wages and wear a few humans out in the process 😂

I think I've seen everything now. Lol

THats amazing.. lord knows how easy it would be! I tried to dismantled a damaged pallet .. and its hard work which took me ages! hahah

Picked up one of these at Goodwill the other day.

Great machine, but what use are the boards with all that metal work left in there?

I just used a sawzall a couple week or so ago to do the same thing. But it didnt take 30 seconds. More like 30 minutes at first.

Great machine,

Those pallets looks great compared some of the old dogs you see in the UK 👍

Meanwhile I spent like a whole day breaking down a few palettes and cutting them into firewood

Hey, I use to make money on extra pallets left in my trailer when I was driving over the road. In fact I would get $7.00 bucks per pallet which can add up especially when you have as much as 20 pallets leftover.

The most amazing display of man's hubris.

Now that is slick!!!!!!! Thanks!

This is why we are always out of pallets at work!

I'm curious how this would do on pallets with lots of plugs/zipper type pallets, also would it be able to teardown block pallets?

So precise. But the pallets already seemed in good condition?

I would really like to see what a robot could do in terms of politician dismantling in 30 seconds. wow, that would be awesome!

I love it! Although it could be build better & faster & cheaper by removing the arm and just having the pallet travel through a blade (or perhaps two blades) that moves through two different set levels.

I hate and despise this machine.. The hours I've spent splitting (and wasting) pallet planks, wrenching ribbed nails out to get some timber......

pretty amazing

Wow that was a great example of robots saving the planet

Those pallets looked new, why not just reuse them as is

and the factory next door makes new ones.

You are making your kid surplus. But the machines will love and care fore them.

I can't believe that a robot was required for such a repeatable and "non-precision" application. I'm a mechatronic engineer and I shake my head.

That's a weird looking fire.

I have to get one of these machines. How long do the band blades last? If they snap do they fly across the workplace giving out free haircuts?

that robot is pretty overkill. this is how you can see companies have way to much money on their hand.

Fascinating!

I have a robot that does much better, including removing nails, nobody wants wood with nails! He calls himself my son.

those pallets being destroyed are ones with "closed bottoms" ie left to right slatts on the bottom, as a warehouse worker i can tell you WE HATE THOSE

Works great, on brand new perfectly shaped pallets.

I want that job!

A $300,000 robot machine to recycle pallets?? And then the timber still has the cut nails inside. No thanks, you can find FREE pallets everywhere! :)))))

I would love to see a close up of the blade, trying to imagine what kind of teeth it has

very clever.

How does it aim the saw to get right between the planks to cut the nails?

i tried dismantling these in the back of our shop with a circular saw - damn near fell forward when the saw blade got pinched - jesus murphy.....ain't doing that again!

In my glory days I could dismantle pallets 20x faster than this by myself easily.

That band saw is the stuff of nightmares! 😮

I want that band saw !

I'm curious as to how the machine grabs the wooden pallet and picks is up. I would guess that the underside of the pick-up plate has screws sticking out of it that are rotated and screwed into the wood to grab it. Then once the pallet is disassembled the screws are unscrewed by rotating them in the opposite direction to drop the remaining pieces of wood that made up the top of the pallet.

Its 2021 did it get up and running did you get the patents for it all ??

Working in a warehouse, now I know why many companies don't take bad pallets.

20 years ago pallets were very high quality wood. I collected them, and used for many projects. After a while, they became junky pine, but my shop was full of excellent hobby wood by then. Just remember, when you plane a piece of pallet wood, it likely contains multiple chemicals from everything it ever carried. I no longer recommend using them, especially for indoor furniture. Toxic chems in the house will kill a pet and harm you as well.