SiteIt's twenty to six. The trailer's on the bay at six. The palletiser has stopped mid-layer with a fault on the HMI, and the infeed conveyor is full back to the case packer. Ten minutes later, the case packer stops too. Then the filler.
Every machine upstream is fine. None of them can run, because there's nowhere for the product to go.
That's the thing about end of line. It's the last machine, and it's the one that stops the most. When it goes down, the whole line goes with it.
Why it's always the end of the line
The palletiser and wrapper take whatever the line throws at them. A case that's slightly out of square. A carton with a flap up. A pallet with a broken bottom board. Film that's been stored in a cold warehouse. Upstream machines can push through small faults. The palletiser has to stack them, and a bad case on layer four brings the whole stack down.
Most stoppages are small and fast to fix, if the person on shift knows the machine. In our view, nine times out of ten it's one of these:
- a case jammed on the turner or the layer-forming table
- a photo-eye that's dirty, knocked or seeing the wrong thing
- a pallet dispenser that's picked two, or none, or a broken one
- the layer pad or slip sheet feed misfiring
- on the wrapper, a film break, a broken pre-stretch roller, or a clamp that's lost its grip
- a turntable or rotary arm stopped by its encoder or home sensor
Our guides to stretch wrapper faults and photoelectric sensors go through these in detail.
The cell is a trap
Here's where end-of-line breakdowns hurt people.
HSE's guidance on packaging machinery says that with palletisers, "most injuries occur when operators or maintenance personnel enter the machine". They get trapped between fixed parts and moving parts such as "transfer heads, sweepers, pushers". The same page warns of "sudden movements of jammed product or pallets that are freed", and of movement from stored energy in pneumatic or hydraulic systems that wasn't dumped (HSE, packaging machinery). Across the food and drink industry, HSE found palletisers and depalletisers in about 4%* of the machinery injuries it investigated over four years. Wrapping machines were about 3%* (HSE, food machinery).
Think about what that looks like at 5.40am. A case is jammed under the pusher. The operator opens the gate, which stops the machine. They lean in to pull the case free. The pusher was stopped mid-stroke with air behind it. The case comes free, and the pusher finishes its stroke.
The gate interlock did its job. It stopped the machine. But PUWER's code of practice is clear that interlocked guards and emergency stops "are not suitable as a means of isolation" (L22, paragraph 195). Stopped is a long way from safe.
So for anything more than a quick clear from outside the guard:
- isolate at the isolator, and lock it
- dump the air, and check the gauge reads zero
- lower the hoist or layer carriage to its stops, or pin it
- look for anything held up only by the jam itself
HSE's maintenance guidance lists the same thing in plain words: "release any stored energy, such as compressed air or hydraulic pressure" (HSE, maintenance). Our guide to safe isolation and prove dead goes through it step by step.
The wrapper bites too
A wrapper looks simple next to a palletiser. It isn't, once you're inside the guarding.
A rotary arm can swing round with real force. A turntable can start with a person stood on it. The film carriage can drop if its belt or chain goes. Treat the wrapper the same as the palletiser. Isolate it, lower the carriage, and check the arm or table can't move before anyone goes in.
Watch for bridged interlocks too. A wrapper that keeps tripping on a door switch is a wrapper someone will tape up. Our post on how interlocked guards get defeated covers what to look for.
Keep the line moving while you fix it
While the fault's being found, think about what the line can do.
Can product go to a manual pallet station, with people hand stacking and a hand-wrapped load? It's slow, it's heavy work, and it needs a manual handling assessment. But it can keep the filler running and the trailer loaded. Can upstream machines run to a buffer? Can the wrapper be bypassed for a few pallets, with them wrapped by hand later?
Have that plan written down before the breakdown, not made up during it.
The cost of the wrong person
End-of-line kit mixes mechanics, pneumatics, sensors, servo drives and safety circuits. A fitter who's great on gearboxes may never have looked at a light curtain or a layer-forming servo.
Put them on a palletiser fault at 5.40am and the clock runs. The first hour goes on a sensor that's fine. The second goes waiting for someone who knows the safety relay. The trailer leaves part-loaded, or late, and the customer counts the missed slot. Our post on late trailers and missed slots puts numbers on that.
Here's our view. If your end of line runs nights and weekends, someone on every shift should be able to fault-find it. If they can't, have an engineer who knows palletisers and wrappers on call. The few hours you'd pay for are small next to a stood line and a missed delivery.
What to do on Monday
- Walk the palletiser and wrapper with your fitters. Mark every air dump, isolator and point where something can fall.
- Write a one-page isolation and jam-clearing card for each machine, and put it at the gate.
- Plan a manual pallet station, with a manual handling assessment, for when end of line goes down.
- Check who on each shift can fault-find the safety circuits, and who you'll call when nobody can.
* Injury percentages from HSE's analysis of food and drink machinery accidents correct as of 25 October 2026. Check HSE's food machinery page for the latest. Paragraph numbers refer to L22, fourth edition (2014, amended 2018).