Automation of the canned food production logistics at Provimi

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In March 2011 MANEX completed a technically very interesting project for the Czech plant of the world's leading animal food manufacturer - Provimi Pet Food.

The task was to automate the previously manual process of loading pet food cans into metal baskets before their transport to the sterilisation autoclave. And also the subsequent unloading from the baskets. We believe that the automatic handling and transport system designed and supplied by MANEX, solved the task in the most practical way. The tedious routine work was removed while increasing performance and overall efficiency of the sterilisation line.

The system consists of a combined can loader and unloader with a common integrated layer pad dispenser and related conveyors for cans and transport baskets. And how does it work?

Freshly filled cans are delivered on infeed slat band conveyors and accumulate on a layer forming table of the loader. Here they are grouped and aligned to form the complete layer. The layer is then gripped by a special magnetic head and transfered to the transport basket, whose bottom is lifted up. The magnetic head design ensures high performance and precise and careful handling of cans. The individual can layers in the basket are separated by plastic layer pads. These are placed by a layer pad applicator which picks them from its magazine. Every time a new layer is loaded, the basket bottom goes one step down until it is full.

The full basket leaves the loader area on the conveyor and with help of the operator it is transported further to the autoclave. After sterilisation the basket travels back to the loader/unloader on a parallel conveyor. This time it enters the unloading part of the machine which performs analogicly reverse operation, eg. it unloads cans from the basket and places them onto the singulating table. Layer pads are picked up by the common applicator and either stored in the magazine or directly used in the can loader. Unloaded cans are smoothly transfered onto the outfeed conveyor. The empty basket is ejected from the unloader and brought to the shuttle car, which transports it to the loader again or to the additional accumulating conveyor for temporary storage. The whole cycle is then repeated.

The system can handle four types of cans (200 - 1,200 g) with a guaranteed throughput of nearly 20,000 cans per hour.

We were delighted we could provide the solution for Provimi Pet Food. We are convinced it will bring the customer a short payback time and a long-time reliable service.

Supplied equipment:

combined loader and unloader for cans
integrated layer pad dispenser
modular forming and singulating tables for cans
infeed and outfeed slat band conveyors for cans
driven and gravity conveyors for transport baskets
shuttle car for transport baskets