Catering automation
Optimise processes with smart automation solutions.
Automation in food distribution with B.PRO
Food distribution usually involves an extensive process that leaves little room for variation. When several hundred or thousand people need to be served every day, the entire process must run like clockwork. The conveyor belt represents the heart of food distribution, and is therefore a complex and labour-intensive component of the sequence. However, the process on the conveyor belt itself offers ample potential for optimisation through the automation of individual work steps.
Automation on the conveyor belt can:
reduce the workload for your staff;
simplify your processes;
increase efficiency;
enable more cost-effective operation;
avoid staff shortages;
and meet hygiene standards even more effectively.
Conveyor belt automation
Automation on the food distribution conveyor consists of several modules, which are individually compiled during the planning stage. Their positioning in the system and their individual performance parameters are carefully defined in accordance with requirements.
- 1. Tray dispenser (with two trolley garages): The trays are removed from the dispenser trolleys at the side and placed on the conveyor belt. Two trolley garages allow continuous tray placement.
- 2. Printer and patient card: The card printed directly on the belt (optional) is placed on the tray. A printed QR code is verified at this station. The subsequent modules use the code information to ensure that the required components are placed on the tray.
- 3. and 4. Tableware placement: Plates, bowls, dishes, etc. can be continuously placed on trays. A platform dispenser trolley with the same plate type is positioned in each of the two garages. The module uses vacuum suction to pick up the plates from the plate trolley and place them on the tray.
- 5. Cutlery dispenser: The packaged cutlery sets are transferred to the garage using a (platform) dispenser trolley. A camera-assisted process identifies individual cutlery sets and a gantry robot places them on the tray fully automatically.
- 6. and 7. Fresh food plating: Foods such as slices of sausage and cheese are placed on the patient's plate as required.
- 8. Packaged food placement: The system can place up to ten different components on the tray within the specified time and at the predefined position. The various components are recognised by a camera system. The components can be added manually from the outside without the need to stop the system. This ensures that the robot can work without interruption.
- 9. Visualisation on the conveyor belt: The employee receives all necessary information about the next tray in the form of images and text displayed on a screen. This information is read and processed in advance by a QR code reader attached to the screen.
- 10. Tray sorter: The system transfers the loaded trays on the food distribution belt to a transport trolley. The transport trolley is put into place manually, automatically transported onwards and picked up again manually once the trays have been loaded.
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Automation solutions from our subsidiary BRIMATO
Solutions for efficiency
Integrative solution concepts from our subsidiary BRIMATO:
Automation as a driving force for your company
BRIMATO Catering Automation Technology is a subsidiary of B.PRO that specialises in the automation of processes in commercial, washing and portioning kitchens.
BRIMATO replaces arduous, repetitive manual operations and strenuous labour with automation technology. This increases efficiency and cost-effectiveness, sets high standards of hygiene and reduces staff workload.
Clients include hospitals, airline caterers, large canteens and cafeterias, event caterers and food processing companies.
Automation in washing kitchens
With both upstream and downstream automation modules for cleaning technology, BRIMATO offers a comprehensive range of options to ensure a seamless process chain. With modules for vertical and horizontal conveying, round-belt conveying, trolley lifting devices as well as lifting and rotating towers, BRIMATO offers sophisticated automation products for transport processes in catering facilities and commercial kitchens.
- Saves time
- Reduces labour costs
- Improves hygiene
- Reduces physical workload for employees
BRIMATO automation solutions
Brimato offers solutions for food portioning from around 2,000 trays per day, including, for example, the sorting and hygienic packaging of cutlery.
Customised construction for automation
Special construction for automation solutions that are not standardised. BRIMATO offers sophisticated solutions for automation and transport processes in catering facilities and commercial kitchens: with series modules and products for automation, vertical and horizontal conveying and round-belt conveying, trolley lifting devices and lifting and rotating towers.
