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Moseley School Students Visit RNA Factory

Nine students at Moseley School spent half day at the Castle Bromwich factory of RNA.

On arrival at RNA at 9.00am, Marketing Coordinator of RNA Ying Zhang warmly welcomed the students. The students were taken to the conference room for a presentation about the company and the various processes take place in the factory.

Stuart Brettell, Managing Director of RNA, gave a welcome greeting, introducing RNA's company background, and product range including RNA feeding systems and specialist handling systems.

RNA Group is world leaders in handling and feeding technology.

Complete with protective safety glasses, the students were then taken to the different workstations in the factory and explained how each workstation contributes to the whole process.

RNA staff explaining bowl feeder fabrication

Explaining how a bowl feeder works

RNA vision guided robot being built

Machinery guarding

Electricities

Machining

CAD drawing

After the factory tour, the students were given a short seminar on CAD drawing. 

After the lunch at 12.30, the students had a free time discussion on their education decision and future career plan.

Rachel Slowey, student tutor of Moseley School, thank all the staff at RNA who help the visit. 'The technical tour was really informative and gave students a chance to look close to the engineering world. 

We value the opportunities for local college and school students to visit our factory. The staff at RNA wish the students of Moseley School all the successes in their studies and future careers!

CASE STUDY - JIF Lemon

Food Industry

Component: JIF Squeezy Lemon

Performance: Open side uppermost all one way at 100 lemons per minute total

In the UK Shrove Tuesday is known colloquially as Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday. Pancakes are served

immediately after cooking and are traditionally served with a sprinkling of sugar and a dash of fresh lemon juice this is where RNA formed an unlikely alliance with a customer.

RNA recently completed a project for Unilever that has delivered new efficiencies and cost savings to the process line.

When RNA were contacted with a request to handle one of UK’s most famous food condiments JIF Lemons, it was both a challenging and interesting project to tackle. JIF lemon juice comes in a squeezable yellow lemon shaped plastic container. The irregular shape of the components posed the most challenging part of the project. The request from the customer was to feed 50 components per minute from two outlets and present the component axis vertical open side uppermost two at a time.

The system was supplied with twin bowl feeders a puck loading station, orientation station, transfer linear and accumulation conveyor. Two opposite handed bowl feeders feed the lemons at random into pucks . Each bowl releases a lemon on demand via a Tic Toc type escapement, the lemon sits in the puck either way

up. The puck is released to a further station where a sensor checks for the presence of the open end of the lemon. Open side up lemons are released onto an accumulation conveyor and the open side below lemons are blown out of the puck into a tube which is fitted to a vacuum generator. This tube inverts the Lemon through 180 degrees and drops the Lemon into a waiting puck resulting in the correct orientation.

The JIF Lemon ‘puck’ system features a simple reliable accumulation and a consistent output rate. The ‘pucks’ allow reliable and robust movement of the Lemons around the system with no damage to the outer container. Efficiency for the overall machine and process line increased dramatically with a reduction in down time, resulting in higher output and shorter lead times to the high street.

If you are interested in more details of the “Lemon” system or have a process that needs improving please contact us at rna@rnaautomation.com

Find out more RNA specialist handling of sachets and pouches...Here

Find out more RNA special purpose machinery for food handling...Here