How Robots Add Safety To Food Production And Packaging

By Laura Studwell, Food, Beverage, and Packaging Industry Marketing Manager at Omron & Dan Dibbern, Robotics Product Manager at Omron

Robots offer tremendous value for food processors and packaging companies, especially when it comes to brand protection. The use of robotics help controls exposure to contamination, and, when used with a vision system, minimizes product integrity issues.

Palletizing, packaging, and packing make up the bulk of applications robots undertake in the food sector. But, what automation companies are seeing now is the movement of robots into upstream processing. This means robots are held to more-stringent sanitary practices, offering a hygienic alternative for food-processing activities. Robots cannot transfer pathogens that cause foodborne illnesses because they are not exposed to external environmental factors. This, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is the main cause of contamination in food processing.

Because of the myriad of laws, acts, directives, and regulations — including the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) — robots are designed to withstand the sanitary requirements of food-processing environments. To ensure FSMA compliance, companies need to look for a system that is FDA-approved and rated to IP69K standards. Similar to other equipment on a processing line, robots need to be able to withstand the rigors of harsh wash-down, high-pressure environments. Fully-enclosed gearboxes, servo motors, and cables combined with a stainless-steel finish and round, sloping surfaces allow for automatic cleaning and disinfecting without disassembly.

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