NEW ORLEANS — Gammerler announced that The Indianapolis Star, which is the middle of constructing a multimillion-dollar print facility, has ordered two Gammerler PR 500 robotic palletizers.

The facility will not be in full production until August 2002, but The Star will install the first palletizer in February 2002 and the second in March 2002. The Star is building its new facility next to an existing building that handles mailroom operations for the Sunday edition. The new facility will allow the newspaper to move its printing operations to one location.

The Star chose the palletizers because it was looking for a way to handle loose bundles with less manpower, according to Richard Rinehart, project director at The Star, and to improve the ergonomics in its production process. One of the factors for choosing the PR 500 was the system’s ability to grab products on all sides, allowing The Star to use it for a variety of options.

The handling module of the PR 500 delivers the bundle to the gripper, which then grabs the bundle on all six sides. This is done in the stacking chamber to help ensure that the newspapers stay aligned. The handling module then retracts and the gripper transports the bundle to the pallet.

The PR 500 is designed to fit into virtually any newspaper environment and takes up less than 100 square feet of space.