Food processing

It took less than half a century for the company to turn a simple foodstuff - the potato - into a superstar. What began in the 1950s as a wholesale business for seed and table potatoes is now an innovative production company for frozen potato and vegetable specialties. From the well-known French fries, croquettes and mashed potatoes to potato dumplings and potato noodles, Schne-frost offers potatoes in all conceivable shapes, sizes and flavors. Since it was founded by Ernst Schnetkamp, an agronomist at the time, the company has grown steadily and today has a factory site covering over 100,000 square meters - equipped with the most modern production technologies in the food industry.

With the same intention and an expansion of its production lines, the company turned to the Sauerland-based conveyor technology manufacturer HaRo in 2019: Schne-frost was looking for a conveyor system that would link the new warehouse with the existing building to connect its new raw materials warehouse to production. The challenge: a fire department bypass between the two buildings could not be impaired for the transportation of the raw materials. A difficulty for which Thorsten Koopmann, Sales Area Manager at intralogistics manufacturer HaRo, developed the right solution concept: two vertical conveyor systems and a section of link conveyors were to cover the distance as well as the height differences between the buildings and meet the requirement for automated transport.

Conveying in two directions

"The customer also wanted to transport the raw materials not only in one direction - from goods receipt to production - but also in the opposite direction." Finally, the unused raw materials are to be transported back to the raw materials warehouse. However, as Thorsten Koopmann emphasizes, the conveyed goods are not just the usual and standardized pallet designs: "We use a wide variety of pallets from all over the world with very individual dimensions, materials and skid or base designs. This is one reason why a trained and experienced eye is also required when selecting the conveyor system. "These pallets cannot be transported using standard roller conveyor or chain conveyor applications," says the area manager, who recommended a link belt conveyor to his customer to avoid tedious re-palletizing. The link belt conveyor enables flexibility in the conveyed goods and eliminates problem areas that could cause the material flow to come to a standstill if the conveyed goods are not suitable for reliable transportation due to their design or possible damage.

Lifting table-link belt combination

But how do the pallets actually get from the incoming goods area to the production area? Thanks to a lift table and link conveyor combination, the goods are fed at floor level, even with a standard lift truck without a high lift, so that no differences between the lift and the link conveyor need to be overcome. Particularly strong and robust modular belts promise maximum durability - even with uneven conveyed goods. An airlock, which is equipped with 2 mechanical access barriers, guarantees maximum safety for employees working there and prevents them from entering the danger zone.
In addition, a contour check ensures that the maximum overhang of 200 millimetres per side is not exceeded and that damage to the conveyor systems and the associated interruptions to the material flow can be completely ruled out. The swivel stations for diverting the conveyed goods also have a special feature: "Because the swivel station's pivot point is positioned off-center, the swivel station rotates flush to the front of the link conveyor without any gaps or distances," says Thorsten Koopmann.

Vertical conveyor

The transfer to the vertical conveyor is fully automated: The goods can be transferred directly from the link conveyor to the freight elevator. The vertical conveyor easily overcomes the height difference from the warehouse to the bridge and then transfers the pallets back to the link conveyor in the bridge. Here too, transportation to the second vertical conveyor is fully automated. The second vertical conveyor is then used to transport the goods back down to the lower level of production. The same process is also possible in the opposite direction. In this way, around 50 pallets per hour are reliably and cost-effectively transported several kilometers per day in three-shift operation.

A concept that completely convinced the Schne-frost Group. Not only does the HaRo Group offer a comprehensive service - from planning to installation and electrical commissioning - from a single source, the expertise of the conveyor technology manufacturer is also available to the customer after successful installation in the form of spare parts orders and regular maintenance. The conveyor system at Schne-frost can also be flexibly expanded or supplemented at any time, as the individual components offer the special option of being built together. This is an option that the food manufacturer is happy to keep open in the future, as the company premises still offer plenty of potential for expansion.