3. Januar 2012
Meat processing at dizzy heights
Stöcklin was in charge of the conception, supply and implementation of the conveying system and the controllers.
Tender, juicy meat and good and solid or delicate sausages rate highly with consumers. To satisfy this demand of high-quality food products, Ernst Sutter AG opened last year one of the most sophisticated meat processing centers. Due to the experience of anterior projects realized by Stöcklin with great skill, Ernst Sutter AG chose the experts from Stöcklin AG again for this venture.
An overall conveying length of 1.2 km provides a trouble-free material flow, which allows a maximum throughput rate of up to 2000 containers per hour. The easy handling of the control and administration system ensures that each single container arrives at its target position even at high throughput. Also the control is a proprietary Stöcklin development based on standard modules, thus favoring the adaptation of the system to the customers' individual needs. The communication between the control and the master system is done by an internal BUS system. In order to create an open and freely accessible workspace, about 97% of the conveyor line was mounted at a height of at least 3.5 meters. This difference in height is bridged by lifting stations and elevators. A four-stranded material flow provides an ideal organization and control of the conveyor systems. The various types of material flows were approached using the properties of different conveying elements, like e.g. roller, band or spiral conveyors. The roller conveyors carry out an additional task: they pile up empty containers creating a so called buffer storage. The piles are monitored by light barriers which indicate the maximum and minimum loading. Once the minimum number is no longer reached, the system automatically triggers the replenishment from the empty container storage. Containers may be fed in at five identification points along the material flow chain. A main target for the containers is the full box storage in the basement of the new meat processing center. There, the meat is temporarily stored prior to further processing. Before the container can take its position, the product it contains must be assigned to the box. For this, each box is marked with a number that allows to clearly determine which product is in which box. This assignment guarantees a seamless traceability Before entering the warehouse, the boxes are automatically registered by a barcode scanner which transmits the data to the control of the logistics system and to SAP. To meet the strict hygienic requirements for a meat processing center all metallic conveyor elements are realized in stainless steel. Soiled containers are transported via a separated material flow to the cleaning station and from there as clean containers back to empty boxes storage.
Since the opening of the meat processing center, a closed process and a customer-specific control solution has been providing a trouble-free material flow, ensuring that the consumers can continue to savor high-quality meat products.
