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 servedimmediately 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
Conveyor components and parts like pulleys, chains, bucket elevators, and rubber and urethane parts have very important roles in the smooth operation of the business. Conveyor components are used for high-speed conveyance, low noise applications. The chains come in many sizes and diameters.
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