The Pouch Order Picking System

The pouch order-picking system is a patented development of Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) for automated order picking of pouch packed goods. It is designed for the handling of seal seam bags, side sealed bags and pillow bags – independent from the nature of the filled good, the filling rate or the packaging material. The bag picking system is based on the idea to produce continuous pouch chains instead of single pouches to facilitate the handling. As a consequence the pouches are not separated until they reach the order picking zone. The pouch order picking system, consisting of a conveyor unit and a cutting device, is able to separate and convey the pouches systematically with the help of sensor technology and image processing systems.

The development of the pouch order picking system was significantly characterised by the increasing demand for flexible, universal and highly reliable automation concepts in the order picking area. The pouch order picking system is directed to provide even complex consignments customized, with high reliability, high performance and low cost structures.