juillet 06, 2022
Automation for more productivity: an essential investment for meat processing plants
In the food processing market, meat product manufacturing is the largest sub-sector of the food and beverage processing industry and has been growing smoothly and steadily for several years. It is also one of the sectors where the labor force is important, and the level of production line automation is low compared to others.
With the pandemic, strict hygiene requirements, rising prices, lack of labor, rising vegetable protein, the sector has great challenges to overcome to continue to be productive and grow.
The peculiarities of the products in this sector mean that the transition to automation has been slow: they are natural, sensitive, and easily perishable products. The packaging process must be adapted to the products, their shape, and their characteristics, which makes it difficult to standardize processes.
The challenges of the companies in this sector are also the challenges of Storcan. It is for all these reasons that we have decided to invest more in R&D to develop specific equipment, especially for the meat processing sector. We are convinced that automation is a good way to remedy the difficulties characteristic of this market. However, it is only relevant if it is adapted to the needs of companies and if it proves to be economically profitable in the long term.
Our R&D team therefore contacted companies in the sector to better understand their technological needs and design custom equipment. From these discussions, several pieces of equipment have been developed:
- The Motorized Driven Roller conveyor 48V/50watt, ideal for transporting heavy boxes (110-120lbs) at high speed in a sanitary and humid environment. More info here
- The elevating vertical conveyor, used to continuously, effortlessly and quickly transport boxes, crates and trays is made entirely of stainless steel and full washdown. More info here
- The pick and place, which moves food products packed in cardboard boxes, has been designed in an ultra-sanitary way to avoid all types of deposits, facilitating cleaning and maintenance. More info here
- The latest equipment designed by our R&D team is an automatic strapping machine, a box closing system specially designed for environments with high sanitary requirements. This fully automatic strapping machine closes and seals boxes in random order without an operator. It can seal both small and large cases and automatically adjusts to sizes randomly. More info here
All of this equipment can be integrated into an existing production line or a complete new line. Designed for the meat processing sector, they can also be adapted to another food sector.
Automation has become essential to support the profitability of all processors in the agri-food sector, particularly those in meat and fish processing, governments have understood this, thus increasing their investments in these sectors.
Storcan experts will be able to support you at every stage of your production line automation project, from design to production, evolving from a manual system to a more automated production system.
Contact us for a custom offer at info@storcan.com