Patent ID: 8007224

Claim:
A depalletizing device comprising a carriage as well as a friction roller attached to the carriage, which friction roller is rotatable about a horizontal rotation axis and is coupled to a rotational drive in order to rotate, the carriage configured to be movable to and fro in a direction at right angles to the rotation axis of the friction roller in order to push the friction roller against a side of an object on the pallet in such a manner that the friction roller exerts an upward friction force on the object, as a result of which the object is raised on that side, and in order for the friction roller to pass underneath said object after the latter has been raised, wherein the depalletizing device further comprises a drive with variable driving power in order to drive the carriage, which drive comprises a detection device, the drive configured so that, when the carriage moves, it is driven with power and that, when the friction roller engages on the side of the object, the driving power is increased from that power until the detection device detects that the object has been raised, and such that the power is immediately reduced when the detection device detects that the object has been raised sufficiently high; wherein the drive comprises a control unit coupled to the detection device in order to control the power; wherein the detection device comprises a light source and an optical sensor connected to the control unit which are arranged opposite one another in such a manner that a light beam is transmitted from the light source to the sensor at the front, parallel to the friction roller; and wherein the control unit is designed to increase the power of the motor for as long as a certain proportion of the light beam is interrupted by the object to be raised and to decrease the power when the light beam is no longer interrupted.