THE REQUIREMENT:
Customer had a smoothie product that was poured into trays to shape before freezing. The product was difficult to remove and required a manual process of hammering each pocket to remove the product.
This process was extremely loud, requiring operators to wear hearing protection, and also posed a health and safety concern due to risk of repetitive strain injury.
It was also very slow, which required a team of operators and batch processing. Operators had to work quickly to avoid product melting during the process.
THE SOLUTION:
PMC developed a custom de-molding system which could remove products from the tray using a pressurized air hammer.
The system is fully washdown and can be used to fill bulk bins placed under the chute, or drop product directly onto a takeaway conveyor for immediate packing.
It features two-hand control and tray presence sensors inside the machine and eject lane to ensure safe operation. Machine complied with CSA Z432-2023 safety code and PMC provided a PSR evaluation and report.
THE RESULTS:
The system quietly and efficiently removes product from the trays at approximately 4-5 trays per minute using only 1 operator. This allowed the customer to reduce head count and increase de-molding throughput by 100%.
The customer was able to remove hearing protection requirements and prevent any working injury claims.
In addition, they were able to remove several manual processing tables from the area leading to an increase in floor space.
The machine has since been replicated at a second location with conveyor output feeding an automatic bagger, minimizing product handling and maximizing output.