Handling of trays on chocolate machine

Details MTF Technik Hardy Schürfeld GmbH & Co. KG

Task: Conveying and handling trays after chocolate production

Hollow body shapes are produced on a chocolate machine.

The chocolate products are picked by a robot at a cycle time of approximately 4 seconds and placed into provided, empty trays. Alternatively, it should also be possible to place individual products directly onto a conveyor belt (without a tray).

The filled trays or individual products should be checked for possible contamination using a metal detector. If metal is detected, the affected tray/product should be automatically rejected.

The trays/products will then be made available to manual packing workstations. There, the trays/products will be manually removed from the conveyor belt along an approximately 30-meter-long conveyor line. The empty trays will then be manually placed back onto the conveyor line.

At the end of the packing stations, the emptied trays are to be returned to the starting point on a second level and made available again at the loading station.

Solution: Parallel lifting stations with conveyor belt system and metal detector

Two vertical tray transfer units with upstream singulation stations, consisting of double chain-guided parallel lifting stations with a horizontal transfer unit. The total stroke between the lower and upper levels is 460 mm, allowing for the intermediate storage of trays.

Filling conveyor belt with metal detector and singulation station. Due to the necessary sensitivity, the metal detector is designed as an enclosed tunnel metal detector.

Pneumatic singulation and staging station for trays in the filling position

Fully enclosed discharge station with connected roller conveyor for metal-contaminated trays or discharge hopper for contaminated individual products

Conveyor belt transfers with rolling knife edge Ø8mm to enable the transport of unpackaged products without a tray.

Singulation station for trays before entering the vertical tray transfer units

Complete control technology including interface to the higher-level control system of the chocolate machine.

Preliminary inspection including full range of functions at MTF Technik

Example videos

Details MTF Technik Hardy Schürfeld GmbH & Co. KG