- After 20 years of integrating ABB robots, PHS Innovate officially joins ABB’s global AVP network.
- From robotic tray changeover systems to 9-robot palletizing lines, PHS Innovate is transforming efficiency, consistency, and safety for major FMCG manufacturers.
- With access to ABB’s tools and platforms like RobotStudio® and OmniCore, PHS Innovate is ready to meet growing automation demand in a shifting labour market.
PHS Innovate is a New Zealand OEM and system integrator who has been specialising in designing a versatile range of turnkey palletizing, depalletizing and material handling systems for their customers in Australia and New Zealand for 70 years. They supply predominantly to manufacturers and producers in FMCG industries and also provide reliable after-sales service and support.
Having successfully offered ABB robots to their customers for the past twenty years, PHS Innovate became an official Authorized Value Provider (AVP) in April this year- becoming the first-ever New Zealand ABB Robotics AVP.
Paul Denton, CEO and Owner of PHS Innovate, is proud of his company’s growth, which includes a list of esteemed clients like Fonterra, and Lactalis. He said, “We set out to be a comprehensive business to support the ANZ markets by offering a wide array of products and services under one roof to help our customers achieve their goals conveniently and seamlessly.
Since selling our first ABB robot in 2005, it’s been our priority to maintain this strong partnership with them as our supplier, and, thanks to our positive experience with the business and their technology all these years - we’ve unsurprisingly repeatedly selected ABB robots as the best technology to integrate with our systems. Naturally, the next step was to become an AVP.”
PHS Innovate has also placed ABB’s IRB 660 robots in numerous high-speed palletizing and depalletizing multi-line systems they have designed and engineered in-house.
As an ABB Robotics AVP, PHS Innovate will benefit from expert support via both local and global specialists. Additionally, they will have access to ABB’s RobotStudio®, an offline programming and simulation tool offering users advanced robot programming and optimisation for testing, validation, and visualisation.
This comprehensive support ensures AVPs are equipped with the resources to drive success in their projects and operations and deliver faster implementation of solutions for their customers.
Paul said, “Mounting numbers of companies are looking to automate, and to do so locally. They’re also recognising the imperative of this in the midst of the current political climate and in market conditions where there’s a shortage of labour.
We appreciate the continual improvements ABB Robotics strive for in their product development, which is currently exemplified by OmniCore, a cutting-edge robotics control platform designed to integrate and manage ABB’s entire robot hardware and software portfolio. The new controller delivers exceptional path accuracy, high speed, and reduced power consumption.”
An automated robotic palletizing system designed by PHS Innovate for Griffin’s Foods. Watch the video here: https://phsinnovate.com/projects/case-study-griffins-foods/ 
(L-R): Gareth McCloughen, General Manager of PHS Innovate; Peter Bradbury, Channel Manager for ABB Robotics Australia & New Zealand; Paul Denton Managing Director of PHS Innovate; Peter Katsos Head of Robotics for ABB Australia & New Zealand; and Graeme Paulin, Service Manager for PHS Innovate. 
An automated robotic milk crate palletizing system designed by PHS Innovate using ABB’s articulated robots. 
An automated robotic milk crate palletizing system designed by PHS Innovate. 
A multiline carton palletizing system designed by PHS Innovate for Snack Brands, featuring ABB’s IRB 660 robots. 
A multiline carton palletizing system designed by PHS Innovate for Snack Brands, featuring ABB’s IRB 660 robots.
PHS Innovate engineered an impressive robotic tray changeover system for a major commercial bakery producer in Auckland, New Zealand.
“Traditional methods rely on baking trays manually placed on trolleys where product changes on the baking line are carried out through repetitive actions. It’s a continuous process where trays are moved along a conveyor that goes around in a continuous loop from the filling to cooling stage. It’s an extremely time consuming and physically demanding task, where employees are required to remove the trays and stack them on mobile trolleys and replace new trays on the conveyor during a product change to ensure a smooth and continuous production on the line,” said Paul.
The automated system created by PHS Innovate features two 180kg IRB 660 robots for loading and unloading trays faster, reliably, and more consistently. It supports 24/7 operations with minimal downtime and helps to reduce problematic repetitive manual labour like heavy lifting for employees. There is less product waste because the robots can easily adapt to different product shapes, tray sizes, and product line requirements.
Another noteworthy project includes a turnkey 9-robot palletizing solution that PHS Innovate designed for a major snack food producer for their operations in New Zealand and Australia. The system palletizes from 24 different production lines, producing around 140 palletized, wrapped, and labelled pallets per hour, to support the company’s mission to fully automate their factory.
When considering robotic automation trends in Australia, Paul says he has noticed an evolutionary change in the past eighteen months with a sharp uptake by milk processors and milk distribution companies to automate their milk crate handling systems.
“Robots are central to designing more advanced, fully automated packages for these palletizing and depalletizing applications. Unlike traditional mechanical systems where empty milk crates are manually unloaded and placed onto a conveyor for de-nesting, washing and filling - robots are compact, easy to replicate in programming, fast to commission, and require less maintenance, less often, which significantly reduces operational costs,” said Paul.
PHS Innovate has already designed many depalletizing applications, which feature ABB robots. Their skilled team of engineers created a mechanical gripper to accurately and securely locate and pick three columns of empty milk crates from a pallet and place them on a conveyor, helping to reduce manual labour and increases efficiency for the businesses. Adding to this the same robot picks up the empty pallet and stacks them for removal by a forklift, saving forklift movements and time.
Another system, designed for palletizing, features ABB robots using a robust mechanical gripper crafted by PHS Innovate to securely locate and pick up three columns of full crates with accurate precision from a conveyor and place them onto a pallet in preparation for distribution. The palletising of full columns of milk crates has traditionally been carried out by forklift. By integrating the wrapping and labelling process there was less opportunity for product damage whilst in transit by forklift.
“The innovation aspect is that robots are now able to adapt to the different product sizes or stacking patterns in real-time, as required by our customers. In addition to that, we’re seeing solutions being increasingly integrated with vision systems like vision-guided robots, and even AI,” said Paul.
Peter Bradbury, Channel Manager for ABB Robotics Australia & New Zealand said, “I’m confident that by becoming an ABB Robotics AVP, PHS Innovate will benefit from greater global visibility for all the great work Paul and his highly qualified team have been doing. Their in-house skillet makes them a real powerhouse for the Australasian automation industry.”
