Cryovac and CAMotion Join Georgia Tech in Bringing an Automatic Case Packer to the Poultry Industry

The race is on to bring practical, affordable robotics to poultry processors. Teaming with Cryovac, Inc. and CAMotion, Inc. (Computer Automated Motion), Georgia Tech researchers believe they have the front-runner, an automatic case packer based on their innovative Intelligent Integrated Belt Manipulator (IIBM). The case packer, a decade in the making, is now poised to change the face of materials-handling tasks in the poultry industry.

Georgia Tech’s automatic case packer boasts unparalleled throughput, packing up to 60 tray packs per minute. It can handle any payload from 1 ounce to 5 pounds, and packs a variety of wrapped food items, including poultry and red meat.

The new automatic case packer boasts unparalleled throughput, packing up to 60 tray packs per minute. It can handle any payload from 1 ounce to 5 pounds, and packs a variety of wrapped food items, including poultry and red meat. Its small footprint allows easy in-plant retrofit with minimum disruption to the existing processing line, while its patented motion control system reduces vibration thus increasing placing accuracy. An operator can change the case packer’s setup by simply entering a product’s ID number, and the case packer picks one tray at a time, which provides maximum packing flexibility. In a nutshell, the case packer is uniquely built to reduce packaging labor, while maintaining humanlike performance and accuracy.

It has, however, been a true team-building endeavor. Tech designers have totally redesigned the case packer for greater speed and ruggedness. CAMotion (an Atlanta-based technology firm specializing in supplying flexible, cost-effective automation control technology for the manufacturing and service sectors) has inserted its proprietary control technology into the system to streamline the robot’s movements and dampen any vibrations created by high-speed movements. Finally, Cryovac (a subsidiary of Sealed Air Corporation and worldwide leader in perishable food packaging technologies) has designed and built a box-feeding conveyor system for the robot, which is capable of moving a new empty box into loading position in less than 1 second.

The team is currently conducting performance-based trials on the system at Cryovac’s plant in Duncan, S.C. Field trials are scheduled for this summer at Gold Kist’s Guntersville, Ala., plant to evaluate the case packer’s reliability at packing trays at the target throughput rate of 60 No. 3 (approximately 1 pound in weight) tray packs per minute. An existing weigh/price/label line is being set up for the trials.

After the trials are complete, the team will make any necessary adjustments to the system’s design. Stepped-up commercialization efforts will begin shortly thereafter. Georgia Tech has agreed to let CAMotion produce commercial units of the robot, which Cryovac, in turn, will integrate into a complete packing system and market. The first commercial units are expected to be available late this year.

Wiley Holcombe, project director, believes commercialization of the automatic case packer is very promising. It is interesting to note that approximately 25 percent of the more than 250 poultry slaughter plants in
the United States use some sort of tray packing. And tray packs represent
16.8 percent of the 27 billion pounds
of total poultry production.

“We estimate the total potential case packer sales to be 160 to 170 units in the poultry industry alone. There are also potential applications in the red meat industry for case packing product in vacuum-sealed plastic bags or in Styrofoam trays,” comments Holcombe.

Holcombe and his research team are also considering modifications to the case packer for use in flexible packaging.

“One of the newest trends in food product packaging is pouch packaging. This and other forms of flexible packaging are expected to take more and more market share from conventional rigid types of packaging, such as tray packs, in the years to come,” notes Holcombe.

Holcombe explains that more automation technology is needed to case pack pouch and bagged product at the speeds and arrays of packing patterns demanded by the food industry. In response, he has proposed a new initiative to take the existing automatic case packer and begin making modifications to its end-effectors, packing cycles, and feeding mechanisms to support the automatic packing of this equally important and growing area of packaged food product.