Robotic packing line

Two Marel Food Systems companies — AEW Delford and Scanvaegt — are pioneering loading and batching technology with the IPL Batcher and RoboBatcher systems to provide meat, fish and poultry processors with intelligent robot batching machines and systems.

The picking and placing of products into trays with robotic arms is now well established across a number of industries, but in meat, fish and poultry processing where floppy, sticky, wet, soft, natural — well, anything that’s hard to handle — products are the norm, the concept is comparatively new. AEW Delford and Scanvaegt have made advances in gripper technology so that virtually any product — however, delicate or vulnerable — can be lifted and placed at speed into a tray or thermoformer in a variety of configurations.

A robot batching system loads pre-formed trays or thermoformers with individual product portions to produce fixed weight packs. If required, more than one nominal pack weight can be produced at the same time depending on production requirements and the size of the incoming product. Continuously fed incoming product portions such as chicken breasts or steaks are individually weighed and the information is fed to a computer which then decides which tray or pack the portion is the be loaded into.

A vision system determines the size, position and orientation of the incoming product then, at the appropriate point, the relevant robot head transfers the portion, while automatically orienting it to the final pack to give the required pack style or presentation.

Good examples of this are the nose to tail patterns required for chicken drumsticks or fish portions. Any portions that may be ‘off spec’ or not required for retail packs can pass by and automatically be diverted to a dedicated bulk or food service pack.

The robot batchers have straightforward, easy-to-use controls that enable operators to switch between products with a minimum of disruption.