LOOPCUT - for the automatic packaging of fine salamis

This system was implemented in July 2021 by he FPA for the automatic separation and packaging of fine salami from the smoke cart into the flow pack system. The system was delivered and put into operation in April 2022.

The LoopCut was designed to automatically cut off sausage products that are hanging on a smoke skewer for drying and ripening and to automatically package them in the flow pack system.

The operator of the packaging machine uses a lifting aid to lift the smoke sticks with the product chains out of the smoke cart and hangs them in the empty buffer section. Up to 24 smoke skewers are temporarily stored in this buffer.

Optionally, the smoke sticks can also be automatically removed from the smoke cart using a 6-axis robot and hung in the buffer section.

The kinematics of the LoopCut picks up a full smoke skewer and feeds the products into a separating device. A light barrier checks the correct position of the products and the product centering fixes the salamis in place. A knife is then moved between the plastic strips in this clamping device using a toothed belt and cuts the products off the smoke stick.

A conveyor belt takes the products lying parallel on the belt to the packaging machine.
Once there, a funnel above the conveyor chain of the flow wrapping system takes over the individual salamis, registers a free area between the carriers and lets one product after the other fall into the feeder of the flow wrapping system.

The system can be used universally. If there is a major deviation in caliber or if the product length changes, small mechanical adjustments must be made to the LoopCut.
The performance of the system depends on the length and caliber of the products or the number of products on the smoke sticks. This means that a maximum of 80 products per minute can be packaged automatically.