WP_Bakery

Automaon in food processing industry
Industrial automaon in bakeries must be handled case by case.
There are mulple factors that inuence how to approach auto-
maon. The size of the company is a relevant factor. While al-
most all processes are automated in large factories, a lot is sll
done by hand in smaller bakeries. But this will change. Inexpen-
sive collaborave robots that are easy to program allow even
smaller companies to automate handling processes. SoGrip-
pers are parcularly suitable for this, as they are just as easy to
operate, safe and universally applicable. The following are just
a few examples of companies that have already used SoGrip-
pers for handling processes.
Frozen dough and buns
The standard mode of handling is in cold environments to not
break the cooling chain. In that case, the sengs of the pres
-
sure are not as important. Simply make sure that the size of the
gripper more or less ts the size of produce. A slightly higher
pressure is ok. Even with dough that you would consider to be
so, you would not get gripping marks. Even a slightly lower
temperature makes dough a good material to handle.
Room temperature dough
Room temperature dough starts to be more of a challenge. It
is so and must be handled with care. Our recommendaon:
Make use of the surface you have. A couple more ngers and a
lower gripping pressure is what you need to achieve consistent
results.
Bread and buns
On to higher temperatures we go! From placing buns on trays
to baked produce that needs to be taken of the tray. A queson
that we get is about temperature resistance of the rubbers we
use and how contact with hot surfaces can aect the life expec
-
tancy of the ngers. We are tesng our ngers for 10 million
cycles at room temperature, but the material we use is rated
for higher temperatures including those reached in cooling li-
nes of bakeries. On top, the contact surface is thick enough
© Wegard GmbH 2022 All rights reserved. info@so-gripping.com www.so-gripping.com
so the contact is not made with the mechanical parts of the
nger itself. So go ahead and grip the hot breadcrust for fresh
packaging.
Small cakes
Cakes come where ngers touch the surface or when a wrapper
is covering the cake. In both cases the grippers can be used.
Icing or chocolate on top will not be a problem, we know that
from handling chocolates. But make sure to adjust pressure set
-
ngs to 0.7-0.6 bar and use the surface area you have.
Sensive products
Dough cookies and even chocolate-coated marshmallow tre
-
ats , German “Schokokuss” are viable applicaons. Usually, it is
best to analyse your product to see where the opmal gripping
surface will be. In the second product for example, it will be the
base made from hard wae. But that is not always an opon. 4
ngers using 0.5-0.6 bar of pressure will make sure not to leave
gripper marks on them. To adjust spacing of a gripper will make
sure the curvature of the closed ngers is adjusted do maximize
surface area. It starts to maer more the faster your applicaon
gets.
Packing and packaged products
Besides primary packaging of single or bulk products, there are
a lot of applicaons where those have to be placed e.g. into
cartonnage. Here you need a gripper that adjusts to the amor
-
phous shape and what is more: adjust to the changes that oc-
cur in gripping and that are caused by the moon force. Need
products are not as common for bread. That’s great because it
means that sucon cups can be used with plasc packaging.
How can that be possible? Usually, sucon cups are a sub op-
mal choice for not uniform bags of products: You never know
when you have reached the bag and need a sophiscated pro-
cess to make sure you gripped the product. But with the help
of the ngers, products and packaging is centered and pushed
upwards to the sucon cups that can now aach for stabiliza-
on. A perfect combinaon!