Baking & Snack - March 2023 - 73

EQUIPMENT
Conveyors
LIGHTENING THE LOAD
Bakeries turn to numerous belting and conveyors to drive
efficiencies, increase capacity and automate laborious tasks.
by Dan Malovany
W
With the scarcity of skilled labor across the industry,
fewer bakers and snack makers are willing to pay workers
for manually moving pans from one area to another
or aligning muffins, bagels or buns by hand when it can
be done automatically. Rather, they are assessing their
operations to maximize capacity. They're then training
employees so they can produce more finished baked
goods, increase production capacity and contribute to
the bottom line. That's where strategic investments in
new belting and conveyors pay off.
" Conveying solutions can be much more than moving
products from point A to B, " observed Clint Adams, vice
president of sales and marketing, CBF Bakery Systems.
" A properly designed conveyor can be used as a buffer to
collate or to stage, reducing the need for operators while
allowing for safer worker situations. "
When bakers strive to boost capacity, they normally
look at increasing the size of existing equipment
or installing additional systems. Connecting all that
equipment requires planning to ensure that every system
is running at maximum throughput, noted Bob
Harrington, vice president of sales and marketing,
Capway Automation. Relying on switching conveyors
enhances production versatility and the ability to control
the flow of products or packages to multiple operations.
Tom Trost, sales manager, Quantum Technical
Services, called these systems " smart conveyors " because
they can be programmed to intelligently diverge and converge
products from multiple lanes or from wider to narrower
lanes without operator assistance. Using variablefrequency
drives (VFDs) enables bakers to manipulate
the speeds of products traveling on the conveyors.
John Miller, service manager at Quantum, added that
most standard VFDs have a PLC connected to them.
" We can also add photo eyes and other sensors for
starting and stopping products and reduce the need for
labor by making the conveyor smarter, " he explained.
" Integrating the complete line into a PLC allows bakers
to better control the flow of production and packaging
as opposed to running each conveyor independently. "
Bakers still need to be careful and weigh the pros and
cons when tweaking conveyor and belting speeds to
boost throughput.
" One option would be to increase the line speeds, but
this can create additional problems, " noted Rick Milner,
product line support leader, Wire Belt Co. of America.
" The faster the conveyor belts run, a shorter belt life
will occur. Another option would be to widen the belt
widths. The downside would be investing in new conveyors
to accept the wider belts. In most cases, it may be
www.bakingbusiness.com / March 2023 Baking & Snack 73
Bakers should
monitor steel belts
for performance
issues and ensure
they're clean to keep
production running
smoothly through
ovens.
IPCO USA
http://www.bakingbusiness.com
Baking & Snack - March 2023

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