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| Solenoids in Food Processing Sorters |
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Solenoids are often highly effective in applications typically viewed as suited for pneumatic actuators.
When high speed, long life and reliability are needed at a reasonable price, Saia-Burgess actuators can be the answer.
A manufacturer of equipment used in high volume food processing recognized a demand in the market for a complex system to load raw material for conversion to a finished product.
The application involves the processing of fresh potatoes into french fries and hash browns. Initially, potatoes are loaded into a bin and scrubbed to remove dirt. Afterwards, they are sent down a chute into an area of the machine for cutting potatoes into shoestring or french fry varieties. At this point, they are positioned in a single layer as they rapidly move along a two-foot wide conveyor. Along the way they pass under a camera that scans for color variations. Information is constantly being fed from this camera to the system control center. When a color variation such as a dark spot is identified, the control center "cues" one or more pneumatic actuators located farther down the line to reject that item.
Mounted side-by-side above the conveyor and positioned at a point facing the fries as they drop onto another conveyor at a lower level, these pneumatic actuators release a 15 mS blast of air to force the "bad" fries off the main conveyor belt. The defective fries are then transported to a different part of the system that cuts out and disposes of the undesirable sections, leaving the remaining portion destined to be processed into hash browns.
This system seemed to perform adequately, but customers began complaining because a large volume of "good" fries were getting mixed in with "bad" fries. Scrap was increasing as customer complaints grew.
An investigation revealed that to correct this problem, either the conveyor speed or the blast of air had to be reduced. Needless to say, the potato processor was not receptive to the idea of having to slow down the line. The only other choice was to find an actuator that could open the air valve more quickly.
A push style tubular solenoid proved to be a superior alternative to the pneumatic valve control originally designed into the system. When pulsed at a voltage consistent with a 5% duty cycle, a response time of less than 10 msec was achieved at a stroke of 0.250". The exceptionally long life (25 million cycles) and high reliability also proved to be instrumental in the decision to replace the pneumatic actuator with our electromechanical solenoid.
These modifications to their system enabled the manufacturer to achieve production of the fastest food processing machines available in the market today with very satisfied end customers.
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