Sensor-Guided Food Positioning for Conveyor Packaging Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Food products from slicing and forming machines often fail to maintain precise positioning and orientation on conveyors, leading to inefficiencies and losses in packaging processes, particularly at the start of operation or during changes in food types, resulting in underweight or overweight groups that can lead to fraud or revenue loss.
Innovation Solution
A food handling system incorporating a positioning system with a main conveying surface, electronic sensor, controller, and robot that captures position data and repositions food products to predefined orientations and alignments, ensuring accurate placement on a moving conveyor.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If food products are conveyed by a main conveyor from slicing or forming machines, then the food products can be transported to packaging equipment, but the food products are not in the preferred predefined position or orientation on the conveyor, leading to inefficiencies in downstream processing
Solution Approach 1:
The positioning system performs preliminary action by detecting the actual position and orientation of food products on the conveyor and calculating required adjustments before the packaging process. The system pre-determines the corrective movements needed for each food product group to achieve optimal positioning for downstream packaging operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The positioning system implements feedback by continuously monitoring the actual position and orientation of food products using sensors, comparing this data against the preferred predefined positions, and automatically adjusting conveyor operation or product placement to correct any deviations. This closed-loop control ensures food products are properly positioned for packaging.
2Productivity
If food products are not properly positioned on the conveyor, then the packaging process experiences inefficiencies, but correcting the position requires additional positioning mechanisms that increase system complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The positioning system achieves multi-functionality by integrating detection, calculation, and correction capabilities into a single unified system. The same positioning infrastructure serves both to monitor food product locations and to execute corrective actions, eliminating the need for separate complex positioning mechanisms for each function.
Data Source
AI summary
A food handling system having a positioning system and method. The positioning system includes a main conveying surface, an electronic sensor, a controller and a robot. The main conveying surface is configured to move food products. The electronic sensor is configured to capture position data about one or more food products on the main conveying surface within a sensor range of the sensor. The controller is signal-connected to the electronic sensor and the robot. The controller is configured to receive data captured by the sensor and is configured to instruct the robot to move a food product to a destination position. The robot is configured to reposition one or more food products on the conveying surface according to instructions sent by the controller. The robot has a longitudinal and a lateral working range. The food product may include formed meat patties or sliced meat or cheese products.