National Bulk Equipment automated material handling system

National Bulk Equipment (NBE) has available an automated material handling system for moving fragile food product through multiple process operations into bulk storage for temporary holding prior to final packaging.

At a process rate of 5400 kg/h, bulk totes of the food product are nestled into a lift carriage; the tote is sealed to a custom-designed discharge hood.

The tote is vertically conveyed, using a 3.81 cm solid 304 stainless steel track and cam rollers to a 7 m discharge height. During tilting of the tote, optical sensors ensure a maximum product discharge drop distance of no more than 12.7 cm through the entire 150° rotation.

Additional material handling occurs as three stages of vibratory conveyor move the fragile food product through two stages of high-speed image processing and sorting to ensure the material maintains its original characteristics throughout processing.

The finish-processed food product is then moved into a storage tote using a reverse-tilt fill method to, again, ensure the product drop does not exceed 12.7 cm during filling. The final take-away conveyor section includes an integrated NTEP-certified weigh system to ensure the filled tote weight is accurate to ±0.01% of the tote’s 1814 kg total capacity.

Conveyor and container routing is directed from a single, menu-driven HMI designed and built by NBE. According to the company, its integrated automation and construction increase material processing rates while reducing material reject rates.