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There's a lot of stuff that gets shipped to your house, and the backbone of logistics is the warehouse. A warehouse is a very fascinating part of the logistics train. That's where things get stored. That's where something might sit on the shelf. Maybe it doesn't sit on the shelf. Maybe it goes in one side of the warehouse in a truck, it gets sorted, and it goes out into another truck, and then somehow it ends up at your door. Warehouses are fascinating, which is why there's this organization called MHI, Material Handling Industry. They've been asking me to speak to students at this event every year. And this is the first year I took a camera.
So today what I want to do is I want to introduce you to the world of warehousing logistics and engineering and all the robotics and all the AI and all the stuff that's going into this because it's absolutely fascinating. It's like getting to peek inside a world that I didn't know I cared about, but once I realized it was a thing, I was like, "Of course there's a dude that does that. Of course there's a lady that her whole thing is that." It's fascinating. So today on Smarter Every Day, we're gonna go to this really cool event. It's called MODEX. I don't know what that stands for, but it is a thing in Atlanta where all the people in the world that work on these different logistics tools,
they get together and they talk about how to make warehouses run more efficiently, and it's awesome. Like, it's legitimately amazing. I'm very excited to check it out. So let's just go around, check out the booths, and see what kind of new technology exists in the area of supply chain management. How's it going? I'm Nick. I'm Destin. What's up, Nick? What do you guys do? So Eurosort has been around. We specialize in unit sortation. So the split tray would drop product onto one of these lifts here,
and then that lift would then determine what destination it needs to go to after that. So you get 2 times that it's sorting from one induction. [D] What do you mean 2 times? [N] Yeah. [D] So induction means I, I put the item in, [N] put the item in, onto our loop sorter. It's then dropping into one of the chutes, and then it's getting a secondary chute by going into one of the destinations.
[D] Okay, so if you had multiple of these, you, you basically have like logic. You could do- it's a binary, 1 or 0, this side or this side. [N] No, it's, it's even more than that. [D] Okay. [N] Yeah, because you're getting what chute it's going into, and then it can go into up to 16 destinations off of that one. [D] So who would buy this? [N] So this could be for e-commerce, retail fulfillment, returns, several different use cases for this. Okay, so this is an Italian machine that makes custom cardboard boxes. So it's going to make a box to fit that.
So I can watch this go through, it'll make a custom box. Oh wow. Oh, that's cool. No way. Is that it? What!? Where's it going? Oh, it's coming out of this side. Oh, it puts the label on it too. Yes, already to send the customer. I love this.
Oh, this casual suction cup crane here. Okay, how's it going? I'm Destin. I'm Prasanna. Nice to meet you. Prasanna, what's up with your suction cup crane here? [P] This is our vacuum lifter. [D] Vacuum lifter, okay. [P] So we use it for lifting boxes, bags, drums, or any different- yeah. So when the suction cup touches the box, it sticks instantly and starts lifting by itself. So it takes the burden out of lifting, makes it easier for people. [D] Are you using vacuum to lift or cable? [P] Yes, there's no cable, nothing.
It's fully vacuum. It's just air that's getting sucked out. sticks to the product starts building up the vacuum and then it starts to lift by itself. [D] Oh, because the vacuum. So this is a coil? [P] Yes, so it is a hose with a coil that can compress and expand. [D] How do you change? I see another one for the cat food there. How do you change this out? [P] For changing it, you got-Done. [D] That was fast.
[P] And then you want to lift the bag. [D] That's awesome, man. And you just have one control? That's release, that's pressure? [P] Yes, so when you want to go down, press this, it comes down. You let go to go up. Once it touches, it sticks by itself, starts lifting up. You want to put it down, press it all the way, all the way, and take it down. My name is Destin. Can I film you? Yeah. So I got a buddy that installs racking for warehouses.
Okay, what is this? So you're showing me a bunch of like broken racks, correct? What is, what is this about? Like you're trying to solve a problem. What is the problem you're trying to solve? Anytime there's a forklift and an operator running around rack and operating around rack, damage is bound to happen. Okay, now the problem with damage is it lowers the capacity. It's a safety concern. With that safety concern comes speed.
How fast can we get that fixed? So when you order a full frame, which is traditional, so you take all the material down all the beams, all the wire decks, and wait 3 to 4, 5 weeks for the new frame to come in. Yeah. So what we're producing is a pallet rack repair kit, which is a modular kit. It's a red, white, and blue components. So if you need a 36-inch kit, you would- the customer would call to say, hey, I have a 36-inch damage. I'm able to cut it to size and have it ready in 20 to 30 minutes to ship out and be ready to go. So instead of waiting 3, 4, 5 weeks for a new frame to show up, we're able to get in and do the repair next day or a week if we
need to do 100 of them. [D] So And your company also does the repair? We also do the repair. [D] You get on a plane or do whatever you gotta do? We drive mostly, but yes. And anytime the rack looks like this, this is a safety concern. [D] So this is how they- okay, so they put a sister jack beside it. That's our PE stamp jack. [D] Oh, I see. Yeah, so they hold it, support, and then put this in place, relieve the pressure. We're able to cut out the damage, we're able to put our kit in.
We're in and out of an aisle within 25 minutes to an hour depending on how tall the kit is. What do you guys do? We're a custom conveyor manufacturer. Uh-huh. So just conveyor belts? Yes, this one is fully battery operated, so battery powered. [D] It's a battery-powered conveyor belt? Yes, that is correct. [D] Why would I need a battery-powered conveyor belt? If you have something temporary, if you need to move it around your facility or a plant, something like- [D] like a quick solution? Quick solution, yes.
They are fully battery powered. [D] These are? Yes, this unit we've ran for all 3 days of the show. [D] Oh, that's powered. Oh, I see now. And if you come over here, it's still got 56% battery life. [D] 3 days and you're still like that? So this is like no joke, correct? We got to make stuff now, we need a conveyor belt. This solves the problem. Yes. [D] Is this rotating? That- yes, that is correct. So it's in and out underneath, and this is, this is what we call our Taco Turn.
[D] Taco Turn. So when you talk about footprint optimization, okay, that's crazy. [D] Why would you need that? So what you could do is you could put like a straight unit here, straight conveyor here, and another straight conveyor here, and it's conserving you on your floor space. So you do an infeed conveyor here, and then you'd have your discharge conveyor here. [D] Taco turn. Yes, I love the name. Okay, let's be real, you are not going to care about the rest of this video unless we first understand the dynamics of the tortilla.
Okay, so let's look at the taco turn. So if you think about this here, let's put a little hole in this. Okay, so that is turning, right? So the tortilla is turning. Okay, but let's just fold that over and then, oh my gosh, this is so complicated. Okay. Yeah, we have a pivot point now. We are rotating the tortilla. Gosh, this is so hard. Okay. I think I got it. So what you gotta do is you gotta take one side of the tortilla and you move it one way, the other side of the tortilla and you move it the other way and it does like this.
All right. So this is not great for video, but like if I'm moving the back part of the tortilla in one direction, and the forward half in the other direction, it goes like this. It's like an infinite taco. It reminds me of the time I learned about hyperbolic paraboloids in Calculus 3, only this is tortillas and warehouse logistics. Hehehe, robotics. So anyway, one side goes one way, one side goes the other way, and the result is the Taco Turn. Nobody expects a guy to care about this stuff, but I very much care about this stuff.
Okay, this is Kevin, and FANUC? Is that how you say it? FANUC, yes. FANUC, okay. This is one of the more popular robot companies in the world, right? Arguably, yes. Okay. [K] Is sensing you, so if you get too close, it'll stop. But, and this being a collaborative robot, you know, it can bump into you and it'll stop. But yeah, what this system is doing, it's a FANUC CRX-30 integrating with an Auto AMR. So basically- AMR? AMR, Autonomous Mobile Robot, I believe is the- sorry if I got that wrong.
[D] No, that's fine. [K] But what we're trying to do is get into the space where robots don't have to be bolted- well, guarded, but also bolted to the ground or their machine. So what this is- this is an integrated vision system. Well, again, this is a Fanuc 3D vision system with an on-robot vacuum tool. So all of them working together to find these boxes and then sorting them based off of, you know, journals into this stack and blenders into this stack. Highlighting how we are using these systems in warehousing and e-commerce settings. So a robot can only interact with a part if it knows it's there.
It has a discrete, it says part present, there's a thing there. Okay. Another thing you might need to know is what is the position that it's in? What is its aspect? There's a whole area of logistics and control that has to do with cameras. It's called machine vision. So the next booth we're going to walk up to, this person is selling cameras that have machine vision applications. What kind of things do people use machine vision for, uh, in the logistics industry? Scanning packages, like on industrial automation lines, um, where you, you have high flow rates of like boxes flowing by,
uh, but you need a kind of reliable, rugged industrial camera to be able to take an image and have it work 24/7 and, and not break Interesting. Yeah, machine vision is huge. Like when it comes to like robots and AI and stuff, if the robots can't see, whether it be with like images or RFID, they can't make decisions, right? Correct, yeah. [D] Okay. I mean, these are, you know, our cameras are feeding all sorts of images to different AI models and, you know, helping deliver the future here. So these are Ethernet-based machine vision cameras.
So a lot of different resolution and speed options available here. But kind of the defining feature is that they all communicate via Ethernet. So you can run the camera data and image data a very long distance. Are they PoE? They are PoE, yep. [D] Do you have one I can see? [D] Oh, I guess they're over here, right? Yeah, this is one of our newest models. This is the Triton 10. So it's using 10 gigabit Ethernet and can do kind of 4K images up to 60 or 70 frames a second in some different models there.
[D] Can you go to a smaller resolution and a higher frame rate? To make decisions quickly. Yep. Yeah, of course you can. Oh my gosh, what is that? What is going on? Okado Intelligent Automation. Look at these robots. So they're over a frame. The frame has tracks on it, two different positions, and you'll notice the wheels, they have an X and a Y, and it'll move and then it'll disengage one wheel and engage the other. Oh wow. It's happening so fast I can't film it. I'm so sorry about this.
That's amazing. And then they have these pickers as well. They can pick individual things out of the- That's ridiculous. So what we're looking at here is the top of what normally is a very tall grid that fills out a warehouse. So if you think about walking into a warehouse where you buy items online, you know, when they're trying to figure out how to fulfill those orders efficiently, They will build giant grids that go floor to ceiling, and up on top of those grids, robots like these square robots here run around on top and move the totes from one place to another, you know, in a very smart way. And these other robots here, the ones with the arms, they are picking items from supply totes and putting them in order totes.
[D] So these robots are made to interface with these? Exactly. [D] Is that right? Each of these robots has the ability to reach way down into these stacks of totes and pick the tote that's on the top of the stack. So it's going to reach down here, it's going It's going to pull up in its belly and it knows it needs to go take it somewhere. It's going to drop it off. [D] So do these pick and place robots, do they stay in one location or is there a movable version of those as well? So they stay in one location and then up on top of the grid, the robots pick as many of the items as they can pick. And then the ones that they can't pick, those totes get set down to the floor where people, you know, pick the other items.
[D] What, what does this look like on the back end from like a data systems perspective? Like you have to have something crazy. Yeah. Running this. Yeah. So this is a massive AI-based you know, algorithm that is, that is tracking all the orders or all the things are and, and, and the times that they need to be shipped out. And so it's a massive data problem. [D] That's amazing. Yeah. David, thank you so much, man. I appreciate it. Have a good day. That's awesome. Learning about this warehouse stuff is fascinating because I'm recently experiencing this.
You may be aware on an earlier video on this channel, we're working on this thing called the Smarter Scrubber, and it's a grill scrubber that uses chainmail instead of wire bristles. But there was problem that we uncovered in that video. We're trying to make this thing all the way in America, which has proven to be a very difficult thing because, uh, in that video, the knob, the- that little part up top, we were told it was made in America. We discovered it was made in Costa Rica, and I cannot abide that. The whole thing has to be made in America. So when it came time to actually make this knob, we used the sponsor for today's video, which is Onshape, to do that.
And I want to explain how we did that. Chris Robeson was the guy that taught me how to do injection molding stuff, and I went to his office when we were making the old injection molded parts for the top of the, of the scrubber here, and Chris was using a software package I didn't recognize. And I said, Chris, what is that? Is that some kind of mold software? He said, oh no, dude, this is just CAD software. It's called Onshape. You don't have to download any software.
It actually runs on your browser. Once you try it, you're not going to go back. We decided to collaborate on this file, so all you had to do is share a link It's like Google Docs for CAD. It works really, really well, and I'm impressed with the user interface. So you can see early on, this is the knob design that we had. Later we did a different version here, and you can see we were able to just work on stuff together. Like you see at the bottom of the knob, the earlier version, we had like 4 of these little sections in the bottom.
And, and Chris said, no, we could do more if you want. I said, yeah, let's do 8. So it's really strong. So we collaborated on a part in a browser, which was fascinating. So when it came time to actually make the mold cavity for this part, we collaborated on Onshape with an engineer out in California at a company called Mantle. They can 3D print mold cavities, and that engineer had never used Onshape before, but we worked on it together, which was cool because we were all in the document and we could just say, oh yeah, check this out. You can, you know, you can do this because we can 3D print a water channel with a special geometry.
The ability to collaborate with other engineers in a browser with like Google Docs level synergy. It's fantastic. So a thing that I'm working on for an upcoming video, I'm doing a nuclear series, uh, here on Smarter Every Day. This is a nuclear reactor, okay? And so I'm working with a guy to make an accurate nuclear reactor assembly. There's a lot of parts here, and traditionally you're emailing a lot of part files back and forth. Check this out, you can just provide a link to somebody and they can like look at stuff on their phone. This is that nuclear reactor, and you can go in here and like say, oh yeah, check it out, that's what I want.
You know, it's amazing. You can even make edits on here. I like using the browser on a desktop, but it's amazing the things you can do with Onshape. So if you're an engineer like me, you've heard about Onshape and you want to try it, you can do it by going to onshape.pro/smarter. You can also click the link below in the video description. for 6 months you can have the professional version with all the bells and whistles. You can take it for a spin, see if you like it. Onshape is banking on the fact that you're going to like it and you're going to go to your company, you're gonna be like, hey, we need to be using this
at the enterprise level because it's really good for collaboration. And so if you're in a government system, they work with GovCloud, ITAR stuff, you can do all that with Onshape. It's a new way of doing CAD, and I think you're really going to like it. So if you want to try it. Big thanks to Onshape for sponsoring this video. Go to onshape.pro/smarter check it out. 6 months of the professional version, all the bells and whistles for free. You can try it, see if you like it.
Big thanks to Onshape for sponsoring this episode, and let's go learn more about warehouses. What on earth am I looking at? This thing is humming. What is this? You're looking at an NPI dual-lane extreme sorter, sliding chute sorter technology that you're seeing here. So it's pushing boxes off? Yes, these pieces, these pucks that ride down the middle here, they're called shoes. They're sliding shoes, and they push pieces off of both sides of this machine. So there's a big conveyor system here, like it's huge.
How would something like this hook into the factory? Like, you gotta have a data interface, you have to have mechanical interfaces. How, how would the factory itself, or the warehouse, how would it communicate with your system? Everyone does it a little different. Um, what I tend to see is that when you're talking of systems of that scale, they tend to have a WES, Warehouse Execution System.
[D] Warehouse Execution System? Yeah. [D] Okay, okay. Is that a software thing? It's a software thing that gives plant-wide kind of schema, uh, data. Okay. But it manages the entire flow of the warehouse. Really? And it'll communicate to my software piece that's called a WCS, warehouse control system. Okay. Which runs my sorter. Okay. And is that what this is? That's what you're seeing on the left screen here. [D] The left screen? Yeah. [D] So this is the sorter running. So basically you're just transporting or you're switching? That's the two things that conveyors do?
That's what's going on here at the show, but typically the sorter is pushing these boxes off to independent destinations. [D] I see. Yeah. [D] Okay, so there would be, there would be lines 90 degrees out from this? There could be lines 90 degrees out, it could be spurs coming off and going to conveyance down to another part of the factory, just depending on where the box is needed. [D] It's like a mechanical computer. It's pretty much, pretty much. [D] What's the name of the company again? This is NPI, we're part of the DuraVant family.
Hey, thanks man. Donald, right? Yeah, yeah, pleasure to meet you. Thanks for your time, man. Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you. That's cool stuff, dude. Yeah, where'd you go to Where did you go to school? I went to school at Arizona State University. Arizona? And what did you study? Aerospace engineering. Me too. Oh yeah? Yeah. That's awesome. And did you think you would end up doing this? Not- no. So an aerospace engineer is running systems that do boxes in warehouses.
Yep. You didn't think you'd do this? No. How did you end up doing this? Just to piqued my interest. It is interesting. It's very interesting. Yeah, especially when you get into the complications of this type of technology. [D] Like what? Oh, just so much going on, you know. You see how fast this is running. There's electric diverts that are firing to push the shoes over. Um, the whole software piece that we spoke about, right?
There's a lot of integration there that happens. Um, is it as fast as airplanes and rockets and stuff? No, but it's still, you know, a unique- we walk into unique situations every single day. Really? Yeah, every single warehouse is different. The problems are the same, but everyone's approach is different. That's cool. Yeah, you're an interesting person. Thank you. Thank you very much, man. I appreciate that. Yeah, have a good one, Donald. Yeah, thank you. That's cool. Fellow aerospace engineer. That's neat.
I respect Donald because he saw a thing he was interested in and he went for it. And because of that, I get packages delivered to my house and that's That's awesome, so thank you, Donald. I think it's fascinating. Another thing I wanna point out is there's this other group of people or companies within the warehouse world called integrators. Now, the way an integrator works is if I have a company and I wanna sell widgets, I say, "Hey, I need a warehouse that will let me have this much throughput," or this is the volume going through my warehouse every day.
And so the integrators, which is like a company that has really smart people in it, they say, Okay, well, we're gonna make a 3D model of the warehouse. It's gonna have this many conveyor belts, this many cameras, this many whatevers, and it's all gonna go together, and we're gonna run this software over the top of it, and we're gonna have these programmable logic controllers clicking these whatevers. They do all that. So I spoke to a lot of integrators, or people that work at these integrators, and it's fascinating. Like, this is another level of thing that can be done if you want to work in warehouse logistics.
And integrators, might be the place you want to look for the job, especially if you're really good at organization. Flexible noiseless stroller. Oh, it's changing velocity. Why do you change velocity? Are you making it ramp before it gets off, shoots off? It's a waterfall, so basically we're simulating these products. [D] Oh, singulating. Yes. So products are together and singulation is when you spread them out. Correct. That's spacing them out.
[D] And you do that with speed? Correct. And the box sizes. Because of the weight difference in these boxes, it's going to go ahead and separate itself out. [D] That's amazing. I need to say set this one up. So there was this one booth that didn't seem like a lot was going on. However, I can read body language, and there were people all around watching this thing in awe and reverence to this, like, seemingly normal thing that was happening, but it was amazing to them.
And so I was like, okay, I don't get what's so awesome about this, but I need to go ask that lady that everybody is, like, lining up to talk to, the lady that's trying to eat lunch but nobody will let her because they want to ask her questions. I need to go talk to her. Eva, I'm Destin. Nice to meet you. Great to meet you. Okay. And so someone told me to come look at this booth. Okay. And I come over here and I'm seeing this forklift. It's called a Gideon forklift. That's right. It's called TRL for Trailer Loading and Unloading.
Okay. And it's just right behind you and you're not even worried about it. Nope. Not worried at all. Okay. Yeah. So it's my understanding that there's something special about what is happening here, and I don't really understand it yet. What's going on? Yeah, so TRA can deal with a lot of variability. You can see here 4 different types of pallets and racks. Its vision allows it to recognize the rack type or pallet type and adjust its forks automatically in order to pick that up in a perfect way, in a balanced way right in the middle and can do that over and over again.
Industrial settings, food and beverage, automotive, 3PLs. [D] So it's the fact that it's moving the forks is special. Absolutely. Recognizing the pallet to know how to move the forks is even more special. [D] Yeah, no QR codes or anything. Nothing. Absolutely nothing on the pallet. Exactly. [D] So I'm going to level with Eva. Okay, this looks like one of the more boring, uh, booths here, but I'm watching eyes, and people that know what's going on are fascinated.
Yes. So you're doing something very special, aren't you? Absolutely. And boring is really what we want it to be, right? Over and over again, no matter what it encounters, it can do the job seamlessly. So in most sites, when you open a trailer door, you have no idea what's going to be inside. You don't know what type of pallet, what type of rack, and it doesn't matter that you don't know. Trey can handle it. [D] So I was talking to someone earlier and they said that the fact that this thing is loading a trailer is like magic.
Yeah, it's like a big deal. Absolutely. Yeah, um, well, in order to load, you have to be able to first enter on any kind of slope, right? And so that means that your forks are going to be pointed up. You have to be able to do a dynamic lift and tilt and then bring that fork back down, not hit the load on the top of the trailer. And, and doing that deep in the trailer is okay, maybe for some, but that last row, which we handle, is really special and most, and most can't because of what I just described. [D] Deep in the trailer is harder?
This- deep in the trailer is easier. When you get very close to the edge of the trailer, that lift of that fork, that ability to bring it down, is really special, and that's what lets us unload. Okay, so what is it doing right now? It's seeing a different kind of rack? That's right. So it's now scanning that pallet type to realize what type it is. It's recognizing it. [D] Is it scanning it with that thing right there? The- with the camera. Mhm. Okay. It's now bringing the forks down.
It adjusted them before it went in so that those forks are going in right down the middle. Okay. [D] Where is the camera at? There are two cameras. One is on the front mast and one is on the back mast, and you can see the back one right there. It looks like two eyes. Oh, I see. It's on that face right there. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. And so this is a very tall thing. How is it seeing around that pallet? So it also has LiDAR all the way around. So it has LiDAR for a safety layer, and that's what allows it to have
a 360-degree view even when the camera in the front is blocked by the pallet. [D] Oh, so there's a LiDAR down there? All around. Mhm. Yes. Okay. Yeah, so this is- and so this is going to be really interesting, right, because you have a very tall load, and it measured how much it needed to bring down the load and enter the trailer. And now it's going in, in the middle. It will shift its forks to the right and put those pallets up perfectly against the wall. Okay, cubing out that trailer, no unused space.
Cubing out the trailer. I am supposed to feel awe and reverence toward towards what I just witnessed. Absolutely. Okay, yeah, and that's, that's from some, like, not your competitors, but people that are not up with your company. They were gasping at what they just saw. So, okay, thank you for sharing that. Absolutely. Go get some lunch. You've been out on the floor too long. Yeah, have a great one. Thank you.
This has me thinking a lot about the shape of robots. Like, uh, you know, I used to think that humanoid robots were it, but, uh, I think robots are going to be shaped depending on what the job is, which is, uh, which is why I'm seeing Boston Dynamics go towards more non-humanoid robots, which is interesting. Okay, I'm in Hall C. There's a lot of smaller things here. I'm seeing casters. I wheels, which is cool. I'm seeing ladders, I'm seeing gloves. Uh, there's a lot of stuff going on in this, in this room right here.
This next booth caught my eye, literally. It was a shiny moving thing. I was like, what is that? I gotta give you a hint because it took me a while to get up to speed, pun intended. This is a motor that powers a conveyor belt, but it's designed in a really interesting way. I saw your display here and I don't know what it is, but I know I want to learn about it. Okay. It's called a drum motor? We refer to them as drum motors, yes. And what makes our technology unique is it's unitized. Everything is internal: the gearbox, the motor, and the bearings. And they all run in the oil.
It has a square shaft, and we hold the square shaft, so everything turns around the square shaft. The conventional, or what we refer to as a standard drive will have the motor gearbox bearings externally, right? So not only do you create, uh, space, uh, on the outside that maybe some customers don't have the room for, um, it, um, has a lot of other efficiency reasons, uh, to keep this all internal. [D] The motor is not driving, it's being externally driven, right? No. See, that's, that's what most people- split like that?
Well, this is a sample display of a 3/4 wound stator, so it's not making a full magnetic field, so you can't really- it's not giving you full torque. I see. Yeah, but it's still enough of the motor there to run. Yes, yes. I've never seen 3/4 of a motor run. That's amazing. And so what I believe, actually, it's the owner of our company in North America- I think it's a patented design that 3/4 stator. Really? Yeah, he did that just so you could- it would run enough to see the rotor turning internally. [D] So you have other ones over here too? Yes, absolutely. So why- so I'm assuming you do this because it, uh, you don't have
to worry about corrosion as much. Is that why you would do this? Yeah, we have two types generally. We have our sanitary series, which is a washdown series. Yeah, rated- typically they're stainless They're sealed, they're rated to IP69K, which I think is about 3,000 PSI, like 3 inches. [D] I'm trying to stop it and I have no chance. Yeah, and to be honest with you, they're running on VFDs, so we can adjust the speed, but they're 110 inputs and they're not- they may not be- they're displays, right?
So you're not going to get the full torque out of these. These are profile shells. And what we do with these is this allows us to make the most sanitary drive for conveyor belts in the system, mainly for high sanitary conditions- meat industry, meats, poultry, cheese- because it's the easiest cleaning model that you will see. [D] Is that stainless steel? It is stainless steel. [D] That, that is an expensive thing to do. I used to work at a food place and everything had to be Delrin or stainless steel.
Yeah, absolutely. And if you, if you see this, we can run plastic modular belt like on this on the top. That's a plastic modular belt. [D] Conveyor belt could run right over the top of it, right? And that's what it's designed to do. [D] So the whole thing is the motor? Yes, well, the gearbox, the bearings, and running in the oil. And so here's a good example of the square shaft. We hold the square shaft and everything turns around it. So nothing is rotating besides the drum itself.
We make custom mounts, we have standard mounts, and then we even have some customers like this example where they slot the shaft and you can actually just drop the square shaft in. So if you were to take the belt apart, it's real convenient because it's a no-tools removal. So this is David, and you have an automatic wrapper machine. Yeah, this is what we call an automatic L-Boxxila, fully automatic. You bring the product onto a turntable, onto an infeed, and then you allow the product to go on, and the product will get through separation because of the conveyance. Oh wow. Then we overwrap it and side seal it.
This is using- yep, uses centerfolded film, and it'll come through the tunnel. This machine will run 45 to 50 packages a minute. [D] Is this shrinking it? This is shrinking it, yep. [D] Wow. Yep, and sealing it. [D] Was that plastic a tube or was it a sheet? It's a sheet. And because of it, it folded over like that? It's what they call center folded. It's center folded coming out this way, so now that back end is- excuse me, that end is sealed.
We'll go that way and then seal all corners. [D] And your logo is under your thing there, so Bestpack? Bestpack, and we do Bestpack BPX. BPX is our shrink division, and we're known for our case erecting, case sealing equipment. [D] Case? Case. [D] Oh, like any kind of case? Any kind of- no, this is what we call a package. Let me show you. Okay, yeah. So this case and a smaller case, so we randomly running product here and sealing the top.
[D] All right, so you put it in there, so center it. Machine now sets itself up for that centering. Minor or major flat folded. [D] That's very- it's pleasant. Yeah, it's good to hear. [D] It's really fun. Yeah, well, that's- this is just a sealer, but we also make case erecting. So you put empty blanks in, you going to redo it? [D] You going to do the small one? Yeah. And it's figuring it out automatically. I don't know why I like that part a lot. And then you got that little tape at the end.
Best pack. Cool. All right, so I was walking through Hall C and I saw it says automatic box opening. And what's your name, sir? Mark Jones. Mark, I'm Destin. Destin, nice to meet you. I've seen a lot of machines that close boxes. I've never seen one that automatically opens a box. Well, it's great because we have the patent on it. Let's try to get a box cuts through for you. There you go. All right, it's going in. [D] So it's going in.
Well, that's not scanning, it's more dimensioning there. But as it gets into the tunnel- this is really just a safety tunnel- [D] where do you want me at? Right here. It's, it's right there. You can see the laser dimensioning it. This is cutting all the way through it on 4 sides. What? Going to the de-litter, which will then take it, put it onto a belt, which will then take it refuse, right? And then really that's it, it's done. Now we have additional things. This is automatic labeling. Yep, you sure can. And then this takes it into a sortation system.
[D] You can pick and place or whatever you need to do. Yeah, you can sort it by store, by SKU, by department, anything you want. [D] What does it do with a damaged box? Well, we have a tool and it's patented. I can show you. [D] Can we crush a box and see what it does? Um, we can, we can do that. There's, there's one there. That one's kind of damaged right there. Well, it's not super damaged. [D] It'll still know.
Can you like crunch the corner in or something? Yeah, you know, it's got a little bit to it. Can I-it's kind of like a- [D] can I just-can I hit it? Yeah, you can hit it. Just like- oh geez. Oh, now it probably won't cut that certain cut height at the moment. Yeah, yeah. So it'll- yeah, there you go. It should do that, right? We should do that? It'll be real close. The litter will probably make it a successful cut, but we'll see.
[D] Yeah, I appreciate your willingness to try. Yeah, that's a pretty big dent right there. All right, all right, what are you going to do? Uh, it may have gotten- no, it's going for it. It is. All right, see if it comes off. [D] Still be connected. Yeah, it'll rip through the side though. [D] Will it really? Oh, I got- okay, this is the new tool we got. [D] He must be the engineer that designed this. Yes, he is.
He's geeking out on it. It's easy to tell an engineer jump in front of the marketing guy, right? Look at this! Oh my God, I'm so excited! [D] So what's the name? Mark, what's the name of the company? Cassie Cornerstone Automation Systems, built in Frisco, Texas. That was cool. I haven't seen my open boxes. That was pretty neat. Well, there's a ton I could do this for days. I think this is a 3 or 4 day show, but I must go home. So the logistics world is very interesting.
It's more complicated than I thought. And what I love about it is any little thing you need to do, there's somebody in some company that's like dedicated their career to making it happen. You need racking with wheels on it? That's what these people do. I think it's, it's amazing. And this isn't even manufacturing, this is logistics. And, uh, the logistics that feed the factories and take things out of the factories and help get packages to your house. It's fascinating. You need to sweep a floor or mop a floor? That's what these people do with robots.
Anyway, I think it's fascinating. Anyway, so this is Modex 2026. Big thanks to the Material Handling Industry Group, MHI. They invited me out to talk. I gave a speech. They did not pay me to do this video. I just wanted to because it's awesome and, uh, I think it's neat. Anyway, I'm Destin. You're getting Smarter Every Day. Have a good one. And, uh, if you want to learn more about manufacturing, I'm doing more of a manufacturing series on here.
Anyway, have a good one. Bye.
