| Meat Products Producer (Company Name Withheld) |
SIC: 2011 |
Integrated By: Babush Material Handling Systems, Sussex, WI
Babush Material Handling Systems recently completed a case handling project for a meat products producer.
There were two challenges with the case handling system. The first challenge was to elevate cases from the production line at floor level to a trunk line 15’ above the floor. Existing technology (slat bed chain lifts) had proven to be unreliable so a different solution was required that would take up little or no additional floor space. The second challenge was that there was little or no space available for a new trunk line. The customer recognized that installing a new trunk line would be expensive and difficult and that the existing trunk lines were not full. They were not sure how to take advantage of this existing capacity and that is where Babush was able to help. We showed the customer how to merge the new line with an existing line. This was a simple matter of installing a conventional brake-meter style merge. Live roller and belt conveyors were used to carry cases from the incline to the existing conveyor. The existing system is also comprised of these conveyor styles.
How the System Works:
To lift cases from the new line to an elevation where we could merge them with the existing line, we employed a special conveyor. This conveyor is comprised of an inclined plastic belt conveyor with another driven plastic belt draped directly over the incline to capture the product and help drive it. In terms of moving parts, this device functions the same way as a plastic chain conveyor. The only moving parts are the conveyor chains and the sprockets and shafts that drive them. Since it is a continuous motion machine, the reliability of this device is very, very high.
Once merged, cases from the two production lines travel together on the same existing trunk line for about 200 feet. Speed changes were made on the existing trunk line to handle the higher capacity but since the combined case rate is still very manageable, only reducer and sprocket changes were necessary.
The existing operation includes feeding the output from a number of production lines to a freezer. The operation of the freezer requires that each conveyor feeding it contain only a single SKU when it arrives at the freezer. Therefore, since the cases from the new line and the existing adjacent line are different SKU’s we had to separate them prior to reaching the freezer. All of the cases include a bar-code label that is applied at the end of each production line. By scanning the bar codes we were able to sort off cases from the new line and transfer them to an existing abandoned line to complete the trip to the freezer. A divert assembly with new roller and belt conveyors were installed to divert off the trunk line and make the transfer to the abandoned line.
Not having to install a new conveyor over this existing conveyor line provided significant savings. Babush Material Handling Systems integrated technologies from several manufacturers to create a system that helped our customer save over $20,000 in new conveyor and facility modifications.
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