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INDUSTRIAL SIFTERS & SEPARATORS data with the system’s controller. The controller then communicates with the robot so that it can go precisely where it needs to in order to make a clean pick from the conveyor belt and place the item in a tray.

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The delta-style robot, designed and built by Orics, is all stainless steel and thus suitable for washdown. The product grippers are made of foodgrade silicon by Soft Robot Tech . “It’s a gripper that works with a special control system from STXI Motion that regulates vacuum and pressure,” says Orics president Ori Cohen. “When you pressurize those gripper fingers, they close like the fingers of a hand. When you release the pressure, they open.”

The softMC compact size controller, developed by Servotronix with an EtherNet/IP interface developed by STXI Motion, features a powerful algorithm that can control numerous axes simultaneously and achieve the desired kinematic motion of the robot. Compared to other manufacturers’ controllers that support three to eight axes, the softMC controller can control up to 32 axes.

The Orics D-series robot is equipped with STXI Motion motors, drives, and harmonic drive reducers with zero backlash. Engineered to allow full control of acceleration, deceleration, and velocity with high-speed performance, the Orics D-series robot is suitable for pick-and-place applications where high-accuracy product placement is crucial. The system also has a self-teach programmable mode. This unique system will memorize positions of pick and place and will repeat them with minimal motor motions. The system can also receive a signal from a video camera and position its actuators, vacuum suctions, or grippers for random pick and place. And an orientation position system enables the robot to orient the transferred objects as they are randomly placed in the production or assembly line.

Cohen describes one application where the robot is just what the doctor ordered. “We put in a short goods pasta line within the last few months for ready meals. If the protein component is small—like diced chicken—it can be weighed and deposited mixed in with the pasta by the combination scale that is part of the system. But for chicken cutlets, for example, which are fairly large and randomly shaped, right now the customer places them by hand. This is where our robot system will come into play.” a video of the Orics system at pfwgo.to/7812 .

E-beam decontamination

The news at Serac’s PACK EXPO International booth was that BluStream (6), an electron-beam decontamination technology that has been in development for some 15 years, now has a commercial installation. The user of the technology is Sources Alma, a producer of bottled water as well as juice and tea drinks that is located in Saint-Yorre in Central France. The firm is using BluStream to decontaminate caps in the place of paracetic acid used previously on an aseptic filling line for beverages in PET bottles.

“With Drinktec last September and now PACK EXPO, we are formally introducing BluStream to the marketplace,” says Nicolas Ricard, managing director at Serac. “We had a lot of interest in it at PACK EXPO, so we expect to have a U.S. customer soon.”

Serac describes its electron-beam technology this way: “BluStream is a low-energy e-beam treatment that can be administered at room temperature. It’s capable of ensuring a 6-log bacteriological reduction in 1 second without any chemicals. This module is intended for use on bottling lines of non-refrigerated and ESL 90-day beverages. E-beam is a physical dry treatment. To sterilize the surface, e-beam dispenses a beam of electrons over the surface of the product. The electrons quickly destroy the microorganisms by breaking their DNA chains.”

Electron-beam decontamination is not new. It’s common enough in the printing industry. In the packaging space, Tetra Pak is among those using it to decontaminate its carton board packaging. The innovation here is that to decontaminate a cap— and soon, says Serac, the inside of a blown bottle— you have to have a highly specialized emitter to get the electron beams inside the cap or bottle.

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As an alternative to paracetic acid or hydrogen peroxide, both used widely today in aseptic and ESL packaging, electron-beam technology is attractive to beverage bottlers because it lets them get away from chemicals. It also eliminates the need for considerable amounts of water to rinse the chemicals. The other benefit to the customer is the simplicity of use. You push a button and begin decontaminating