Cheese Treatment Line Basic

A robotic installation designed for automatic cheese processing.

Positioning of cheese boxes

To begin with, a full container of unplasticized cheese will be placed in the positioning frame. Then the container will be clamped against the top of the frame. When the line is started, the robot will start emptying this container. Subsequently, a full container can be placed in the other boxes cell or if a container is already present there, it can be exchanged. As soon as the first container is filled with plasticized cheese, the process starts again.

Robot

The robot removes the shelves with cheese from the container. When the shelf is out of the container, the robot places it in the cheese turner. When the robot has put the shelf away, it will first take the shelf from the top of the cheese turner and place it under the cheese turner, where the shelf can be removed.

Then the robot will pick up the filled planks on the other side of the line and place them in the empty place in the container.

Cheese turner

When the robot has placed the board with cheese in the cheese turner, it will be pressed against the conveyor belt by the cheese turner. The cheese is then turned away with the conveyor belt. The moment the cheese is turned, it will also be placed in the correct position for further processing of the cheese.

When the machine is running, the cheese lies on the conveyor belt and the shelf will be raised. The cheese is then discharged via the curved belt to the plasticizer.

Curved conveyor 1

The cheese goes to the plasticizer via the curve conveyor.

Plasticizer

The plasticizer will apply the plastic layer to the cheese. First, an amount of plastic will be applied to the cheese. Then this will be divided by 4 flap rolls. After plasticizing, the cheese will be further transported to curve conveyor 2.

Curved conveyor 1

With this curved belt there is the possibility to lubricate the cheese from the plateau. There is also a button box here, with which the line can be stopped and started.

Chain conveyor shelves

The chain conveyor for the shelves provides the connection between the cheese turner and the shelf washer. This runs under the plasticizer and transports the shelves.

Shelf washer

When the shelf arrives at the shelf washer, the shelf will be fed through by means of a driven drum with pressure roller. During the feed through, the shelf comes over powered brushes and a number of spray nozzles to clean the shelf. After cleaning, the board is dried by means of a brush. After the washer there is a conveyor belt that carries the plank towards the point of removal.

Cheese depositing belt

After plasticizing, the cheese can be put back on the shelf. The cheese is further transported from the plasticizing belt to the end of the depositing belt. The deposit belt is a conveyor belt with a small head roller diameter to minimize the height difference between the shelf and the conveyor belt. When the cheese is at the end of the deposit belt, a clean shelf must be present before the cheese can be placed on the shelf.

There is also the option of manually discharging the cheese. Then the cheese will continue without a shelf on the line towards the discharge conveyor..

Roller conveyor shelves

When the cheese is put back on the shelf, it ends up on the roller conveyor shelves. When the first plank has reached the back stop, it will be pushed over with the help of a cylinder, so that the next plank can come. If there are two planks, the robot will pick up the planks and put them back in the container.

The total installation consists of: