Pick and Place for a Better Product

www.vaccon.com 508.359.7200

Vaccon Company, Inc.9 Industrial Park RoadMedway, MA 02053

Phone 508.359.7200 E-mail [email protected] site www.vaccon.com

Innovation Adds to Bottom LineIn the existing pick and place system there were two stainless steel struc-tures that held the original venturi pump and cups. These heads were powered with a cylinder in the Z direc-tion to pick up the pastry. In addition, a second cylinder provided a lateral movement to increase the centerline distance of the two heads for placing the pastry into separate stacks. The

pastry sheets are used in a variety of shapes and patterns—one pattern has four sections cut from the sheet and the other pattern has two larger sec-tions. The outside dimensions of these two sheets are not the same. To save money and time, Vaccon retrofitted the vacuum head so it remained within the existing vacuum head geometrics.

A second Vaccon innovation took the form of a novel air dam design, featuring a removable metal gate which enabled line personnel to

require the product to be frozen prior to packaging. Utilizing Vaccon’s inno-vative custom design and engineering capabilities and modular End-of-Arm Tooling components, the design team

was able to integrate vacuum pumps, spring levelers, fit-tings, and manifolds to de-velop a custom Pick and Place technology that exceeded expectations.

Mazor’s Bakery is a small family owned bakery in Brooklyn, New York. The company specializes in puff pastry dough, precooked tart shells, and precooked frozen pizza dough. Founded in 1978, the company currently employs 20 and ships prod-uct throughout the US and Central America.

Working closely with Vaccon’s authorized local distributor, All Air, Inc. of Elmsford, NY, the goal for Mazor’s Bakery was to move the freezing process from the front of the production line to the end of the production line, which meant picking and placing “raw” flaky puff pastry covered in flour—physically a very different product compared to frozen dough. Mazor’s manage-ment knew the solution they sought would impact their entire puff pastry production and packaging line.

Pick and Place for a Better Product

Mazor’s Bakery of Brooklyn, New York knew it could produce a better prod-uct if it could revise its production line. Success hinged on being able to deploy a pick and place technology that didn’t

An improved Pick and Place system enables the handling and stacking of raw pastry dough prior to packaging. Once packaged, the product is frozen in the sealed packages to preserve the flavor.

Since deploying the improved Pick and Place system, the pastry dough does not have to be frozen prior to packaging.

Innovative End-of-Arm Tool for a Pick and Place Application Provides Greater Manufacturing Flexibility and a Better Product for New York Baker

Since deploying the improved Pick and Place system, the pastry dough does not have to be frozen prior to packaging.



the overall footprint of the packaging line, it also enables one production worker to operate in a cell environment, both operating the mixer and monitor-ing the packaging operation.

The pick and place strategy was to design one special vacuum cup in conjunction with a standard vacuum pump that would pick and place both sizes of dough with minimal change over time using the current fixturing that was in place. Due to the bakery environment (flour everywhere and covering the product), clogging of the cup and vacuum pump were major considerations in the design. The puff

Prior to modification, the Mazor’s Bakery packag-ing system included adjust-able cutters placed just above the conveyor, cutting the dough to a specific size. After it passed under the cutters, the pastry then traveled on the conveyor through an instant freezer compartment (10 feet in length). It then traveled another 5 feet outside the freezer compartment to the pick and place head, where the frozen dough was placed onto sheets of paper (stacked 5 high). It was then pushed onto another conveyer where it traveled to final packaging.

Mazor’s new packaging system has the freezer compart-ment placed above the pack-aging process to enable the freez-ing of the pastry after it has been packaged. Elevat-ing the freezer results in a better use of available vertical space. While reducing

quickly move between packaging two different products with very different outside dimensions.

“It is a situation like this, where innovation really has an impact that makes Vaccon stand out,” says Brian Ferri, President, Vaccon Company, Inc.

“All that is required to make the shift between placing the two products is unlocking the clips circled in the pictures shown [above], moving the vacuum gate, then locking down the gate in its new position.”

A separate system places a paper sheet between each layer of dough. Once a stack is complete it is placed into its plastic bag and sealed. The completed package is then flash fro-zen. By freezing the final product in its packaging Mazor’s Bakery is better able to preserve flavor.

Freezer prior to packaging.

Pick and Place for stacking the raw dough. The Vaccon pumps and custom designed pick and place head. This unique design allows the handling of raw pastry dough in different sizes. With instant on/off control, energy is saved by creating vacuum only when needed

The pick and place system designed by Vaccon is able to accommodate different size pastry products through the use of air dams. Handling different shapes of pastry requires only 10 seconds for changeover.

Vaccon’s innovative vacuum dam allows Mazor’s personnel to switch over between products being handled in less than 10 seconds. Above: on the left, two larger pieces of pastry dough are being placed, while at the right, four smaller pieces are being placed.

CMarotta

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pastry is extremely droopy and re-quires a “soft touch” to avoid imprint-ing the cup pattern on its surface, and high flow to facilitate lifting the pastry off the conveyor rather than having to make contact prior to lifting it.

The Vaccon pumps selected for this application feature unique Vac-con innovations that place the vacuum port and exhaust path inline making a straight-through venturi vacuum pump. Developed for extremely challenging environments or applications featuring a lot of “loose” airborne matter such as flour, sugar, or powders, Vaccon pumps have a reputation for not clog-ging, losing suction, or requiring a vacuum filter.

Prototyping/Testing/Final Production A small version of the special vacuum cup was machined and tested with a standard vacuum pump on a single piece of production dough (not frozen) with great success. Vaccon then manu-factured custom vacuum “cups” and re-tested with both sizes of dough with the same success. Mazor’s Bakery removed the fixturing and sent it to Vaccon where it was modified and re-assembled with spring levelers, the new vacuum

cups, and required hardware (vacuum pumps were attached to the main hous-ing and plumbed to cups).

SummaryThe end result of the Vaccon custom design effort was a faster, more flexible pick and place machine and a better product for Mazor’s Bakery.

“We were brought in by Vaccon’s local distributor, All Air, Inc., to focus on the bakery’s existing Pick and Place machine,” says Brian Ferri. “If we were

The CDF 500-EPT100-ST16FC Adjustable Air Amplifier/Blower.

By reconfiguring the production line so the final product was frozen after being packaged, Mazor’s was able to increase product quality and save space.

The biggest challenge for the pick and place system was to avoid clogging of vacuum pumps with flour and raw dough. Vaccon Company venturi pumps feature an “in line” design that avoids this problem.

successful, the puff pastry product could be frozen at the time of packaging, ensuring a better, more flavorful prod-uct.” Through close collaboration with the local distributor and the customer, the effort yielded a faster, more flexible machine. “Not only did Mazor’s get the machine upgrade and production line reconfiguration they were hoping for, but they also got a tremendous value in only needing to upgrade the head on their pick and place machine and not the machine itself.”

CMarotta

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Vaccon Company, Inc.9 Industrial Park RoadMedway, MA 02053 Phone 508.359.7200 E-mail [email protected] Site www.vaccon.com

AboutMazor’s Bakery

Mazor’s Bakery1785 McDonald AvenueBrooklyn, NY 11230Phone 718.339.4175Isaac Mazor, President

AboutAll Air, Incorporated

All Air, Incorporated is a stocking distributor of pneumatic, motion control, and electronic automation components. We have been serving New York and New Jersey for over 25 years and our line card reads like a “Who’s Who” of pneumatic automation. At

Mazor’s Bakery pastry dough is distributed in the US and Panama for producing a variety of products.

About VacconCompany, Inc.

Vaccon Company Inc. was founded in 1972 to supply the packaging, manu-facturing, food processing, and other industries with reliable vacuum products characterized by efficient operation, rug-ged construction and great value. Vaccon innovations include pump designs that place the vacuum port and exhaust path inline making a straight-through venturi vacuum pump. These compact pumps are excellent for extremely “dirty” and dusty environments such as food process-ing, packaging, foundries, and bagging

operations because they do not clog, lose suction, or require a vacuum filter. Vac-con’s new, modular End-of-Arm Tooling (VEOAT) components offer everything you need to create a complete “wrist-down” EOAT for your material handling operations. Vaccon’s EOAT features an innovative component design that is modular, lightweight, compact, and easy-to-connect. Using Vaccon’s EOAT you can integrate vacuum pumps, suction cups, spring levelers, fittings, and manifolds using simple erector-set connectivity in

minimum design time. Vaccon’s ex-panded vacuum pump product line also includes other unique devices such as Material Transfer Vacuum Pumps, Vari-able Vacuum Pumps, Air Amplifiers and Manifolds.

All Air, Incorporated we will analyze your application and suggest the most effective use of available technologies. We also make value added solutions available in the form of kitted components, pre-assembled manifold assemblies, and tubing harnesses.

All Air, Incorporated175 Clearbrook RoadElmsford, NY 10523Phone 800.4 ALL AIR (800.425.5247)Email [email protected] Site www.allair.com

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Pick and Place for a Better Product