Whether you grill ‘em at a cookout or grab one at a fast-food joint on your way to the beach, hamburgers and summer go together like nothing else. For many of us the sight, sound, and smell of burgers sizzling on the grill, can trigger many of our best early memories during the warmest days of the year.
This month’s Albagram features a palletizing line in a distribution center for a leading fast-food hamburger purveyor brought to Alba Manufacturing by one of our integration partners, K2 Kinetics, out of York, Pennsylvania. K2 was tasked with designing and building an automated palletizing cell for cartons of product. These cartons needed to be palletized and wrapped prior to being shipped to various distribution channels. Alba’s assortment of pallet handling products served as the material handling basis of K2’s robust and efficient robotic palletizing system.
The process starts with a stack of empty pallets loaded by fork truck into Alba’s robust pallet dispenser. Pallets are then sent one at a time down the transfer line to one of the two palletizing lines.
These palletizing zones, consisting of Alba’s standard DC-R80-3S, (3-Strand) Drag Chain Conveyors, including side guides and a pivoting-style pop-up stop locating the pallet’s leading edge prior to palletizing.
Once fully palletized, the CLDR conveyor will convey the fully loaded 1,500 lb. pallet of burger buns to the adjacent 3-strand pop-up transfer, and eventually downstream to the customer-supplied stretch wrapper.
After the full pallet has been stretch wrapped, it accumulates with other pallets down Alba’s CDLR conveyor to a fork truck unload station, where finished pallets are removed from the system and shipped out to fill the needs of hungry customers.
The implementation of Alba’s pallet handling equipment reduced the safety risks and the excessive costs associated with reliance on fork trucks for pallet handling. The new palletizing cell is now able to efficiently automate an otherwise complicated and labor-intensive operation, while the robustness of Alba’s structural steel-constructed equipment ensures the process will continue long into the future.
PRODUCT: 40" x 48" GMA Pallets, 1,500 lb. Maximum (full) and 75 lb. (empty) |
Conveyor/Product Specifications for Various Conveyors: |
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One (1) Pallet Dispenser, 15 Pallet Capacity, 30 FPM, 18" TOC (Discharge Elevation) |
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Two (2) Model TFT 251140-4, (2-Strand) Chain Transfers, 30 FPM, 18" TOR, 36" Chain Centers |
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Four (4) Model R80-3S, (3-Strand) Drag Chain Conveyors, 30 FPM, 18-3/4" TOC, 36" Chain Centers |
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Two (2) Model TFT 251140-4, (3-Strand) Chain Transfers, 30 FPM, 18" TOR, 18" Chain Centers |
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Model 251140-4 Chain Driven Live Roller Conveyor, 30 FPM, 18" TOR |
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Value-Added Features |
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End Stops (Fixed and Adjustable) |
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Backstops |
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Blade Stops (Pneumatic) |
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Side Guides |
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Fork Truck Barriers |
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Fork Truck Wheel Stops |
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Color Match Paint Scheme |
The next time you encounter a challenge, call Alba Manufacturing. We can help you locate your nearest Alba Partner Network Member today or call us at 866.252.2634 or visit our website at www.albamfg.com.
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We’re Proud of All Our Team Members |
We’re proud of all our team members here at Alba. Recently, the team realized a fantastic goal – 1,056 consecutive workdays without a work loss incident! To celebrate, we held a luncheon in honor of their accomplishment.
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