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Robotics - the Future of the Food Processing Industry
Once considered as a labour saving asset, primarily to take away the drudgery of repetitive jobs, robots or perhaps more correctly all forms of automation are now an essential cog in production as part of a food safety and hygiene regime, an answer to manpower and labour problems and a means of maintaining high speed production.
Automation can be found right along the production line in the meat processing factory - from slaughter through to the final packaging and despatch.
More and more companies are using sophisticated logistics systems to control the speed and direction of products along the line and to control orders and restocking.
However, at the Anuga FoodTec exhibition earlier this year, Rolf Peters, the managing director of K-Robotix in Bremen said: "The food industry is still a new market for robots and it is by no means an easy on.
"This is because many products , whether sausages, fish fillets, cheese slices or chocolate bars vary in quality and size."
The robots also have to adhere to the high hygiene standards laid down by the processor and legislation itself.
Mr Peters, whose company has created the Robotik-Pack-Line is one of the pioneers of robots in food processing in Germany.
"They are flexible and their work is precise," he said.
"Robots can take over the monotonous and physically straining work that people would usually have to do."
In the slaughter and meat processing industries now, more and more automated carcase splitters are used on the line as well as hide pullers in the cattle and lamb processing industries to take away the hard physical side of the work.
Precision cutters set by x-ray or lasers are used to cut the carcase into primals and more and more automatic cutting and deboning machines are being installed on lines.
In the further processing side the automation can be seen throughout the factory - from the initial process and mixing to packaging.
In ham processing equipment manufacturers such as Metalquimia have removed virtually the entire production line personnel to have some one supervise the in-feed of the products at the start of the line and another to take them off the line at the end as completely cooked hams ready for slicing.
Production line robotics date back to the 1950s when scientists George Devol and Joe Engelberger developed the Unimate robot and took out a patent in December 1954.
The robot weighed two tonnes and was controlled by a programme on a magnetic drum. Most of the first robots were used in the heavier industry. Unimate helped make cathode ray tubes, but the greatest use for automation came in the motor industry.
Now, however, official figures from the statistical department of the International Federation of Robotics estimate that there are more than 1 million industrial robots being used worldwide. About half of these are in Asia and a third in Europe and only about 16 per cent in the US, where they were first made. Germany is the largest country fro robots in Europe and last year the demand for robots in industry grew by 30 per cent on the previous year.
These robots are being used in every phase of production. On the one hand there are large scale machines that can hand heavy loads and difficult conditions in areas such as freezing and palletised packing.
The palletising robot from the German company Kuka operates in conditions as low as -30°C with specially adapted power supplies to keep them running in Arctic conditions. Other robots have been constructed to such a high degree of hygiene that they are suitable for use in the processing of meat, fish cheese or milk.
However, the meat processing and food industry does not always require heavy lifting and harsh mechanics. Some of the robots have to have a gentle touch.
AEW Delford, part of the Marel Systems group has developed a robot that can lift and place delicately cut sliced meat as well as portions to place them into trays ready for sealing.
"Robots are populating the food industry in increasing numbers as processors intensify their continuing, relentless search for faster, more economic methods of production that will enable them to satisfy the insatiable demands of modern retailers and the rapidly changing lifestyles of consumers," says AEW Delford.
"Robots can effectively perform in a number of vital production roles including, for example, the picking up and placing of individual products or groups of products from, say, a conveyor to packaging trays."
The company adds: "The Intelligent Portion Loading Robot (IPL Robot) that will pick single, fresh or frozen, bone-in or boneless meat portions or sliced groups - like bacon, cooked meats, fish and cheese - from a portioning slicer, saw or conveyor and place them straight into trays or thermoformers ready for packing."
The company worked closely with leading robot manufacturer, ABB of Sweden, to produce this new system, which uses vision technology to accurately recognise the position and orientation of portions on the conveyor. This enables the machine's unique, mechanical action gripper to gently - but quickly - lift, transfer and place the portioned product with great accuracy into the tray or thermoformer.
Other companies had developed pick and place robots using suction methods while others are using grippers to load product, swiftly, cleanly and hygienically.
Rolf Peters concluded: "The food industry is being forced to expedite the automation of its plants.
"Robots increase the safety process and decrease the chances of downtimes or production shortfall thanks to their reliability and availability."
Without intelligent automation solutions, it would be impossible to keep production and products in the food industry at a continuously high level.
"Robots hold a place in the future - a future that has only just begun in the food industry," said Mr Peters.
