| Application Stories |
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The Icing On The Cake Recently the company redesigned one of its larger automated machines, the A.C.I.S. (Advanced Cake Icing System). This machine uses two one-inch indexing belts to feed round cake layers down an assembly line. A cardboard magazine automatically feeds cardboard sheets onto the belts for a pneumatic cake-layer manipulator which then centers and deposits the layers onto the cardboard. One, two or three layer cakes are moved to different stations where they are automatically iced and decorated on all or some sides. For all of the above stations an up-and-down lift stopper-gate mechanism stops the cakes on the belt directly in front of the various stations. The cakes are then lifted three quarters of an inch and spun 360 degrees to center them directly under the icing nozzle. Icing is applied to each layer and the cakes move down the line. There are five turntables and three to four independent stopper-gate modules. Customers were experiencing malfunctions and significant downtime with the up-and-down lift stopper-gate, which employed a compact, square air cylinder with anti-rotation rods. The cakes on the cardboard weigh anywhere from one half of a kilogram up to three kilograms and travel at a speed of 30 feet per minute. The gate could not withstand the mechanical shock incurred when the belt was suddenly halted by the cakes bumping into the stopper block. The sugar and other ingredients in the icing were contaminating the rods causing corrosion and pitch which over time led to a loss of air tightness of the inside seal. During wash down the extraneous batter was getting pushed underneath causing the mechanism to seize. Design engineers sought out a better way to manipulate the layers. By using a different stopper plate and implementing a "flip-flop" module that swings back and forth rather than up and down, design engineers were not only able to solve the malfunction problem, but they were also able to accommodate a larger range of cakes. The key to the new stopper gate lies in three little plastic components: iglide® bearings from igus® Inc., a leading developer of plastic bearings and linear guide systems. The new stopper gate is equipped with two iglide® plastic plain sleeve bearings and an igubal® all-plastic rod end. The plastic bearings do not require any lubrication and they are completely maintenance free. The plastic is impervious to any of the cake ingredients and it will not corrode. The bearings have high shock-absorption rates and, therefore, their performance is unaffected by the impact of stopping the belt. Igus can predict the life and wear of its iglide bearings to ensure they can withstand the repetitive motion and high number of cycles. Best of all, customers no longer experience any downtime and do not have to send the component back to the manufacturer for repair. "The biggest problem we faced was that our customers had to halt production, disassemble the part and ship it back to us for maintenance," said Dragomir Cristian, project leader for Unifiller Systems. "They were losing precious time and money. When you are producing 15 cakes per minute, every minute counts. The abrasion from the sugar was also a significant factor. The iglide bearings from igus incur virtually no contamination and wear from any external factors, whether it be cake ingredients, water or shock, and overall they provide a nice, elegant solution." In addition to redesigning the stopper gate, a new plate was installed which can accommodate a variety of cake sizes to be decorated on the same machine. The A.C.I.S. enables production bakeries to produce the same amount of cakes in half the amount of time, for a fraction of the labour cost. With a little design ingenuity and some plastic components, Unifiller Systems is able to continue to deliver these top-notch solutions. igus, inc.
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Canadian Industrial Equipment News June 2005 |
May 16, 2008
