Packaging lines don’t pause for SKU changes, seasonal surges, or the next retail mandate. The pressure to move faster, safer, and with fewer people on the floor isn’t a future state. U.S. manufacturing wages now average $29.77 per hour, unit labor costs rose 9.1% in a single quarter, and the labor market is sitting at roughly one open job for every unemployed person. For household products manufacturers, finding and keeping qualified line operators isn’t a hiring challenge, it’s a structural constraint with no near-term relief.
Brenton has been engineering case packing and palletizing solutions since 1987 for exactly this environment. The solutions below aren’t concept equipment. They’re production-proven machines running in facilities across the U.S.
Case Packing Solution Example:
M2000 Side Load Case Packer
Household packaging lines run a wide range of formats, cartons, bottles, tubs, pouches, bundles. The M2000 is engineered to handle that variety without demanding a new machine for every SKU. It’s an intermittent motion side load case packer built for production environments where changeover time is money and repeatability is non-negotiable.
The M2000 replaced Brenton’s top-selling Mach 2, carrying forward the mechanical precision while cutting footprint by 25% and shortening installation time. Changeovers are designed to be repeatable, meaning your operators aren’t troubleshooting the machine every time a format changes. It runs RSC cases, trays, and display cases. It handles products as varied as laundry pods, cleaning cartons, and personal care tubs.
For capital equipment buyers, the M2000 fits into a fully integrated end-of-line system, erector, packer, sealer, palletizer, built and FAT-tested as a single system at Brenton’s Alexandria, MN facility before it ships to your floor.
Palletizing Solution Example
RP100 Robotic Palletizer
Once cases are packed and sealed, the question is how reliably, and safely, you can build a pallet. The RP1000 is Brenton’s answer for high-mix, high-throughput household lines. It’s a flexible robotic palletizing system built on FANUC robotics, engineered to handle the complex pack patterns that household SKUs routinely demand.
The RP1000 accommodates single and multi-line feeding configurations with multiple discharge lane options. End-of-arm tooling is specified to your application, multi-zoned vacuum, clamp-style, or bag grippers, and supports mixed layer palletizing when your retail requirements call for it. Changeover between case sizes requires little to no operator adjustment.
Safety is designed in, not bolted on: wire mesh fencing, polycarbonate enclosures, and safety-rated light curtains at pallet discharge. For manufacturers working toward ergonomic improvement goals or injury reduction targets, automated palletizing removes one of the heaviest manual tasks from the floor.
When your capital investment requires a single point of accountability, from contract through commissioning, Brenton operates as a true integration partner. Systems are designed, built, and fully tested at one facility. That means your FAT reflects real production conditions, not a promise made on paper.
If you’re evaluating end-of-line automation for a household products line, the conversation starts with your throughput targets, your SKU range, and your floor constraints. Brenton has done this work across personal care, cleaning, paper products, and more.
Speed. Flexibility. Reliability at Scale.