According to Baumer, packaging is the final stage where food can become contaminated with foreign bodies and microorganisms. Operators work and feel safe when they are assured the equipment survives the cleaning procedure and the equipment functions properly again next day. Baumer understands this pain and designed photoelectric, inductive proximity switches and optical distance sensors, among other products, that safely survive all cleaning processes. To ensure that stainless-steel housing, peek cover and polycarbonate windows withstand the conditions, Baumer even developed its own test cycle. Check out Baumer’s impermeability concept: proTect+.

Apex Motion Control is known for providing robotic automation to the wholesale baking and food industry, but it also designs industrial robotic palletizing solutions for the dairy industry. From primary pick-and-place robots for moving cheese slices from the conveyor to shelf-ready containers, to large industrial robots for palletizing skids of 4-liter milk jugs, chances are Apex has a robotic automation solution to help you remove the dangerous and non-value-added tasks in your dairy production plant. Watch a sample video from a dairy packaging plant on Apex Motion Control’s website.

A-B-C Packaging says its robotic packer offers maximum flexibility to run multiple flexible packaging styles with a variety of infeed options, making this machine a good choice for packagers looking to upgrade from hand packing or moving from another package style. The packer is equipped with a high-payload two-axis robotic arm that can be programmed for virtually any packing configuration. The operator station offers complete control in a clear and concise interface, including setup, operation, real-time and historical status reports, maintenance alerts and fault detection for troubleshooting. Typical changeover time is less than 10 minutes. A washdown model is available in stainless steel with washdown-rated components.

ABB says its IRB 660 is a dedicated palletizer that provides the ultimate combination of speed, reach and payload. The exceptionally fast four-axis machine combines a 3.15-meter reach with a 250-kilogram payload, making it ideal for palletizing boxes, crates, bottles and more. Its optimized motor power and motion performance ensures the shortest possible cycle times. The palletizer comes in a high-speed version, capable of handling 180-kilogram payloads at full speed, and in a 250-kilogram version for high throughput. The robot’s impressive reach means it can service up to four in-feed conveyors, two pallet stacks, one slip-sheet stack and four palletizing out-feeding lines.

Delkor Systems Inc. is a manufacturer of advanced robotic case-packers, formers, closers and palletizers. The company says its most popular dairy solution is the newly redesigned LSP series case packer, which is specialized for the loading of pouches and bags into cases, trays and retail-ready packages. Delkor Systems designed this machine to be mindful of production speeds. Simply add robot cells as needed to hit your rate requirements. The modular design is available in one-, two-, three-, four- and five-robot configurations for speeds up to 180 products per minute.

Burkert Fluid Control Systems says integrating process valves, sensors and controllers via Ethernet IP and IO-Link — using add-on profiles and add-on instructions for Allen Bradley/Rockwell Automation programmable logic controllers — allows for streamlined integration and simpler setup. The valve island Type 8652 AirLINE and the field device Type 8653 AirLINE Field provide easy commissioning and maintenance, as well as minimized process risk — regardless of whether in the control cabinet or directly in the process environment. Thanks to a wide range of communication options, they are also future-proof in times of Industry 4.0. In addition, integration into the Burkert EDIP platform is possible.

BluePrint Automation’s (BPA) Spider 100v case-packing solution uses delta-style robots with vision to pick and pack product into cases, cartons and trays. Perfect for overwrapped dairy products and more, the Spider 100v eliminates traditional racetrack collation and potential jam points. With on-the-fly picking, this is an ideal solution when the exact position and product orientation are unknown. The Spider 100v is built using BPA’s standard modular frame to reduce cost by minimizing wiring and significantly minimizing the footprint of lines by eliminating bulky external electrical cabinets. BPA says the Spider 100v is a great choice for manufacturers that are looking for versatility, speed and operation ease.

Benchmark Automation says its InFlight FT automatic infeed is a high-speed loader that features a noncontact feeder, allowing it to deliver precise, continuous motion loading of products that cannot be backlogged or products that are sticky or fragile. The floating belt-to-belt transfer times a single lane of randomly spaced product into the receiving flights of a horizontal wrapper or cartoner. The InFlight FT feeder eliminates the need for repetitive hand-loading, and paint-free surfaces remove the concern of product contamination caused by flaking or chipping. Maintenance is made easy with a fully cantilevered design for access to key components.

Quest Industrial says its Boxed Bot space-saving palletizer is available as a modular or skid-based solution. The Boxed Bot features a long-reach Fanuc M-710IC Series robot that provides higher stack patterns, which better maximize tractor-trailer loading for more efficient shipping. The Boxed Bot is extremely flexible, allowing an operator to design and produce exact pallet patterns of dairy products quickly and easily from bags to boxes and other product types, and it does so with a small footprint starting at just 8 feet by 10 feet. The Boxed Bot uses a Venturi-style vacuum gripper to lift regular slotted cartons, half-slotted containers, bags, blocks, pails and dunnage — each weighing up to 60 pounds.

Package cheese products of different shapes and sizes with the hygienic robotic packaging systems from JLS Automation. The high-speed, vision-guided Talon robotic pick-and-place system accurately places cheese blocks, rounds, wedges, slices and sticks into thermoformers using IP69K-rated deltas. The robotic Osprey efficiently loads primary packages into cases. High-payload deltas are available. Both feature food-safe end-of-arm tooling options that meet USDA requirements. With proven application experience with raw cheese, JLS says it provides turnkey system solutions that reduce worker safety issues by adjusting to production needs and eliminating the stop and go of manual production processes.

FlexLink’s RI20 palletizing cell is compact and mobile and adapts easily to production changes, whether for a new recipe or a different line location. The unit is suitable for palletizing closed boxes. The easy-to-use unit is the latest addition to FlexLink’s robotics offer, with unique hardware and software interfaces for trouble-free operations. The semi-open palletizer integrates an advanced safety system for safe coexistence between the robot and operators. It will automatically slow down if an operator enters the safety zone and will stop only if needed, reducing unnecessary downtime. The two pallet positions create a seamless pallet exchange, increasing production capacity, FlexLink says.

Emerson says the Rosemount 1408H noncontacting radar level transmitter is optimized for level measurement applications in the food and beverage industry. With Fast Sweep technology, it provides reliable hygienic measurement and helps reduce product losses and maximize production capability. The Rosemount 1408H features a unique design that withstands high cleaning temperatures and is compatible with clean-in-place/sterilization-in-place processes while minimizing contamination risk and ensuring product safety. The Rosemount 1408H offers both digital IO-link communication and 4-20 mA signals, making it easy to integrate with any automation system. This ensures an easy installation and commissioning, thanks to its innovative technology and smart algorithms.

Texwrap says its intermittent-motion Tekkra 200 Series shrink wrapper comes standard with a NEMA 4x electrical package and stainless-steel mesh metal-framed guard doors, making it an ideal bundling option for the dairy industry and ice cream applications in particular. Cartons, tubs, pails and other dairy items are multi-packed or bundled with one of Tekkra’s many collation systems, including the Tekkra Inverter, a servo-driven rotary turret for tapered tub products. Features on the dairy industry 200 Series include an Allen Bradley PLC/HMI interface — which ensures user-friendly, reliable operation — and a servo-driven main ram for product control and simplified changeovers.

Stäubli Robotics’ advanced range of humid-environment (HE) robotic solutions, designed for the dairy industry and the safe handling of all foods, offers hygienic design with a fully enclosed and pressurized structure free from retention areas. According to the company, the solutions prevent bacteria development and feature full washdown capability, compatibility with NSF H1 food-safe oil and much more, while maintaining market-leading precision, speed and accuracy. Stäubli offers a complete range of four-axis and six-axis robotic systems and collaborative and mobile robotics, as well as software to meet the most exacting demands of the market internationally. Stäubli is proud to have won the Reddot Product Design Award 2021 for its four-axis TS2 series industrial robots — the first fully enclosed SCARA arm of the world. Contact the company for more information.

Somic America says its Somic 424 automatic case packer platform provides the ultimate format flexibility on a small-footprint frame. The all-in-one 424 has the ability to run retail-ready wraparound cases, trays with stack shoulders and display trays with removable covers or inserts. Servo-driven, it incorporates unique functional groups within a single frame, thereby eliminating performance-robbing and multi-machine modules commonly required to perform these separate packaging functions. User-friendly with easy changeovers, the 424 offers future-proof versatility for the ever-changing retail-ready demands of the dairy industry.