The impossibility to socially disengage from food processing has been perhaps the most devastating aspect of the pandemic.

While it has been a safety rule to keep at least six feet from others, the layout of many food and beverage plants does not permit it. As the world recovers from the pandemic it is time for processors to think about how they can make arrangements to allow social separation, especially if they are planning to renovate or build new facilities.

In some cases, conveyors may play a part. Conveyor systems can be designed to improve worker safety and distance between workstations with current and emerging technology.

“We’ve received many questions about how conveyors could help maintain distance for employees who work in facilities,” states Stacey Johnson (director of strategic planning and marketing at Dorner Manufacturer). Everyone has had to adapt the way they make, package, and process food to comply with CDC guidelines. Safety is more important than ever for employees.”

Space is the biggest problem. Many plants don’t have enough space to separate workers.

“In most applications we are finding that the greatest obstacle to overcome it is not ‘Can you modify your equipment to work’,” says Chris Woodall (manager of integrator services at Hytrol Conveyor Co. “It’s “Does the customer own the real estate necessary to properly social distance employees”,” ”

Obstacles to Progress

You can also protect them by installing barriers. In order to create work stations, processors used makeshift measures like attaching Plexiglas sheets perpendicularly to the conveyor lines. Perdue Farms had at one time large wire hoops that served as frames for clear plastic bags. These were then changed between shifts.

Barrier installation is an option offered by some conveyor suppliers. Dorner offers an accessory to its AquaPruf conveyors: a mounting bar that allows partitions to attach directly. Multi Conveyor has barrier stations, which are especially useful for hand-packing operations.

Multi-Conveyor spokesperson: “The length of pack zones, the number of conveyors, or required side tables, are determined by application. This is in accordance with individual plant safety guidelines.” Barrier-spaced stations are also easily integrated into existing work areas.

End users who wish to attach barriers to conveyors should ensure that they are compatible with the design of the conveyors. This includes working around gearboxes and motors, or even avoiding them entirely.

VDG can achieve this by attaching drum motors to the conveyor end. This avoids bulky electric motors and power transmission equipment that tend to stick out of the conveyor’s side.

Rick Zander, the business development manager for VDG, says that companies can save’real estate’ around their conveyor frames to maximize employee workstation area without needing to protect external motors or gearboxes. This saves processor space and maximizes the utility of workstations, increasing safety for employees.

Timing is everything

Even if there is enough space to establish social distance, timing can still be a challenge. Conveyors must ensure that workers have enough time to finish their tasks while still maintaining a satisfactory throughput.

This can be achieved in some cases using conventional methods. Simplest is to make the line longer. Other options include changing the line’s timing by adding accumulation points or other slowdown and speed-up areas.

Woodall states that Hytrol’s large range of conveying equipment makes it easy to modify the equipment to allow social distancing. We have the solution, whether it’s lengthening conveyor, adding zoned accumulation among work stations, or adding additional drives.

The problem is that most conveyors can only run at one speed. Although they can vary speed with the help of variable-frequency drives and AC motors, this is usually only done to accommodate production shifts and not individual worker needs. If workers still have to work on the product, it won’t make sense to move them closer together or speed up production.

There is technology that can solve this problem. It allows for a beltless conveyor, which is a system that transports products without a single belt or chain. Instead, individual devices slide around and can be sped-up, slowed down, or stopped at will.

Rockwell Automation offers several of these “intelligent conveyance” systems. They are based on the principle of the “linear driver”, which is a type of inversion of the traditional motor setup consisting of a stator and rotor. The “cart”, which is the component carrying the payload, becomes the stator. It moves along the track using electromagnetic interaction.

This principle is used by Rockwell for products such as the iTrack which can move heavy loads up to 80kg at high speeds; MagnetMotion which has several product lines that transport between machines; and QuickStick which can carry heavier payloads.

Beckhoff Automation has similar products in XTS or XPlanar. Magnetic suspension is used to propel the tiles across a surface. This form of propulsion is more linear in XTS than it is with XPlanar. Beckhoff says that XTS is used in over 1,600 food & drink applications around the world, while XPlanar, which is newer, has many food apps, including a German schnitzel brand.

Beltless conveyors have the potential to help distancing workers while maintaining production speeds. Their ability to speed up or slow down individual units is what makes them so useful.

Mike Wagner, Rockwell Automation’s OEM segment manager, says, “It’s an opportunity to take the entire production process and turn it on its head and get rid all the confines where conveyors go between point A and point B and point C, and you have workers working in one area.” You can now create branches, and you can move workers to any distance. This allows you to change the task or the function as you wish.

Wagner claims it is possible to set up a conveyor beltless so that units move away form one worker to the next. This could be done based on a signal from the worker or a vision system that tells when a step has been completed.

It was difficult, if not impossible, to achieve social distancing in many food & drink plants during the pandemic. This was simply because it had never been necessary before or that it would be needed. This idea is now solidified and conveyor technology, both current and future, will play an important role in making it happen.