Stäubli Robotics announced that it will showcase live demonstrations of its specialized robots for food production at PROCESS EXPO. The company will be located at Booth 2918, South Hall, from October 23-25 at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

Stäubli creates robots for sensitive environments. In the food industry, it occupies the robot-based automation space with its food-grade humid environment (HE) robots. The company states that its robots can withstand regular wash-downs and control contamination with hygienic design features such as retention-free, fully encapsulated, detergent- and corrosion-resistant surfaces.

At PROCESS EXPO, Stäubli will present two demonstrations of production lines for protein processing and packaging, highlighting its Ts2-60 HE and TX22-90 HE six-axis robots. These models are part of its comprehensive portfolio of HE robots ideal for meat processing tasks such as cutting, deboning, portioning, and handling frozen food boxes and unpackaged products.

The TS2-60 HE will perform a chicken breast handling and thermoform packaging operation. It is quick and precise as it identifies and aligns randomly placed products on a high-speed conveyor, picking up the floppy pieces and placing them into their packages uniformly.

The larger TX2-90 HE will display its flexibility in handling and cutting meat and cleaning both the products and itself. The robot starts by cleaning its tooling. It then moves to a chicken breast, picks up its cutting tool, and stimulates waterjet cutting in precise rows on the raw product. Quickly rotating to a third station, it picks up a burger, places it onto a conveyor and washes the product. After each cycle, it returns to a self-cleaning station to clean its tools, having proven its ability to handle different products in the same process, which saves valuable production space.

All robots in Stäubli’s HE series are designed for hygienic and humid environments and are suitable for a wide range of primary and secondary processing and packaging applications. Features include:

• Fully enclosed and pressurized structure prevents microorganism penetration and condensation
• Smooth, rounded and tilted surfaces prohibit liquid retention
• Fully compatible with NSF H1 food-grade lubricant without loss of performance
• Protected against pressure jets of water (IP65) and immersion (IP67)
• Crucial components in stainless steel with special coating for extreme conditions
• No external cables: all connections run through the arm and base
• Unique, cylindrical envelope and small footprint
• Patented Stäubli proprietary JCS gearbox for accuracy, repeatability and durability

Stäubli’s HE series ranges in size and format (4- and 6-axis) and payload from 1 kg to 15 0kg. All have the flexibility of multiple mounting options, allowing easy integration into production lines.