Key Technology Introduces Vibratory Conveyor for Feeding Pick-and-place Robots
Key Technology unveils innovative vibratory conveying systems for feeding pick-and-place robots on packaging lines.
Depending on the application, each set of integrated conveyors meters, separates, singulates, and/or aligns product to give optimal product separation, speed, and orientation for ideal presentation to the robotic system for pick-up. These new systems assist in increasing manufacturing efficiency, minimizing labor, and improving cleanliness by decreasing hand packaging.
“As a food processor grows, they come to a point when hand packing has to be minimized or is no longer feasible. Manually packaging, especially 24/7 with several workers at a time, is expensive, inconsistent, and can be unsanitary, plus these jobs are physically grueling with high turnover. It’s a huge pain point for many of our customers – automation makes sense. The challenge is that lining up products for presentation to a pick-and-place robot requires a degree of precision that’s unusual in conveying. Drawing on our team’s deep expertise, we work closely with each processor to design the perfect solution for their specific application,” Jack Lee, Duravant Group President – Food Sorting and Handling Solutions, said.
Every integrated conveying system is designed, built, and tested by Key to determine the best speed, stroke, lane widths, and step sizes for consistently presenting the processor’s products to the robot’s end-of-arm tooling. These systems, which are suitable for either primary or secondary packing, may handle frozen goods such as potato products, meat, poultry, and seafood, as well as dry products such as cookies, pet treats, confectionaries, and snacks.
“The integrated conveying system often begins with an optional shaker or belt conveyor to meter product, if needed. Then, a separating shaker evenly spreads the product, followed by a singulating shaker that directs the product into single-file lanes. The next shaker aligns the product in the correct direction, if required, and achieves the optimal speed to feed one or more pick-and-place robots, which are installed on one or both sides of the conveyor. Products that are not picked up by the robots can either be collected in a hopper or recirculated to the beginning of this system,” according to a recent press release.
With stainless-steel bed surfaces, open designs, and oil-free drives, Key’s strong vibratory conveyors are built for superior sanitation. When a processor automates primary packaging, it improves sanitation by removing manual handling of unpackaged products throughout the packing process and lowering the possibility of unintentional foreign material contamination by a worker.
“Key manufactures conveyors and other equipment in both the U.S. and Europe supports customers worldwide through its extensive sales and SupportPro service network, and offers integration services, from pre-engineering to line start-up. Key’s conveyor beds and structural components are backed by their industry-leading, five-year warranty,” the company’s experts summed up.
