During the sorting and packing process, fresh produce needs to safely and efficiently move through the packing house. One of the critical components in moving product is a conveyor belt and, in this space, Intralox is one of the major providers of product conveyance across food and non-food categories, with application- and product-specific solutions. "Back in 1971, we invented Modular Plastic Conveyor belting technology and we provide a range of FoodSafe™ conveyance solutions that help mitigate food safety and hygiene risks," says William Kusnadi, North America Account Manager with Intralox. In addition to food safety benefits, Intralox FoodSafe belting is sprocket driven with zero or low tension, helping to reduce unplanned downtime, ensure longer component life, and ease planned maintenance.
© IntraloxCherries in clamshells: Activated Integrated Motion.
Packer-to-Palletizer solutions
The company also offers Packer-to-Palletizer solutions that help optimize primary and secondary package movement between the filler/packer and palletizer. "Our proprietary Activated Roller Belt™ (ARB™) technology helps fresh produce packers around the world address growing volumes and labor challenges by helping to efficiently and gently moving packed product from the filler/packer to the palletizer at high speeds within the available footprint while eliminating or minimizing planned and unplanned downtime," Kusnadi said.
Intralox also provides conditioning solutions - including their award winning DirectDrive™ Spiral technology – that help optimize key applications like blanching, pasteurizing, cooling, and freezing. The company supports packers globally across multiple categories and their solutions are often used for tomatoes, potatoes, citrus, apples, pears, cherries, avocados, and kiwi fruit.
© IntraloxSpiral solution.
Diagnosing problems and providing solutions
Since inventing Modular Plastic Belting technology over 50 years ago, Intralox has heavily invested in R&D and innovation. "This has resulted in the launch of groundbreaking technologies like Activated Roller Belting (ARB) and DirectDrive Spirals, which have significantly enhanced efficiency and productivity for major food producers globally," shared Frederic Minery, Intralox Account Manager for France. "Our success relies on accurately diagnosing problems and providing tailored solutions." This is only possible by deploying industry-specialized interdisciplinary teams that are composed of Account Managers, Customer Service and Technical Service teams. These teams work directly with end users and equipment builders to help diagnose issues, recommend solutions, and ensure that these work as expected. "Our goal is to ensure that our solutions meet or exceed expectations."
© IntraloxActivated Roller Belting solution.
Solution for New Zealand apple packer
An example of how team collaboration has resulted in diagnosing an issue and providing a solution will be discussed below. "Our ARB technology has helped a packer of apples in New Zealand increase their throughput by 48 percent," commented Mo Al Khatib, New Zealand Account Manager with Intralox.
Golden Bay Fruit pools apples from several family-owned orchards to their packing house and packs product for six to seven months out of the year. The company exports fruit to over 25 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. One season, a serious problem emerged as a new 2 x 2 slat switch between the case sealers and the palletizing system was causing a major bottleneck in throughput. Sized to move 27 boxes per minute at maximum capacity, the slat switch was slower than the case sealers feeding it and the palletizers following it. As a result, capacity was significantly impacted and some days overtime labor had to be scheduled to clear the jammed cartons.
In addition to reduced capacity, the slat switch didn't offer an option to divert product to a manual palletizing lane in case the automatic palletizing system went down. As a result, slats would slip under the boxes, leaving cartons stranded. The slat switch was also noisy and highly unreliable, requiring significant maintenance after each packing season. Golden Bay started looking for a reliable case switch system that would meet their capacity target while feeding a third exit where cartons could be sent for manual stacking during peak production times.
Intralox came in the picture and the Golden Bay team was connected with Intralox's Packer-to-Palletizer specialists. Intralox performed simulations to debug, demonstrate, and
recommend a solution within Golden Bay's budget goals. Ultimately, the Intralox Activated Roller Belt (ARB) Switch S7000 was chosen, configured with two entry points and three exit points—exactly what the plant needed. In the new situation, two lanes from the case sealers feed the ARB Switch, which switches the boxes to either robotic palletizing (two outgoing lanes) or manual palletizing (one outgoing lane).
"Within a week after installation, the line was running smoothly," said Al Khatib. Compared to the old slat switch's capacity of 27 boxes per minute, Intralox's ARB Switch handles 40 boxes per minute, which matches the higher capacity of the case sealer feeding it. In addition, the back end of the line now has a manual palletizing lane, allowing staff to bypass the automatic palletizer entirely in case of issues with that system and for manual palletizing to keep the line running. "There has been minimal unplanned downtime due to the ARB Switch, and general maintenance is much easier and less frequent." Officials with Golden Bay were pleased with the technical assistance they received from Intralox's Australian and Chinese teams. "We were very impressed with the Intralox team during installation and the ongoing performance of the ARB Switch. We will definitely look at furthering our relationship," said Stephen Nicholls, Packhouse Automation Engineer at Golden Bay Fruit. Click here to read the full case study.
For more information:
William Kusnadi
Intralox North America
Tel: +1 (206) 495-5405
william.kusnadi@intralox.com
Frederic Minery
Intralox EMEA
Tel: +33 6 14362123
frederic.minery@intralox.com
Mo Al Khatib
Intralox New Zealand
Tel: +64 21 1906992
mo.alkhatib@intralox.com