Pancake stacking solution

23 March 2020

WMH has recently added to its portfolio of stacking solutions with the completion of a high-speed stacking and packing conveyor system for a large European bakery.

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The new system, which is well suited to use on production lines where products are continuous with no variation on size, is designed to handle up to 15,000 individual frozen pancakes per hour exiting a freezing tunnel and feeding stacks of product to two wrapping lines.

The system provides a continuous flexible solution which is able to feed product to two stacking units in parallel or divert all of the pancakes to feed one stacker only. To ensure seamless continuous operation the system was designed to incorporate a third stacking head which will move automatically into position in the event of either of the two operational stackers suffering a product jam or other failure. During a fault situation the upstream divert system will activate to feed all product to the operational stacker while the spare stacker slides into place. This will ensure production continues uninterrupted and minimises product losses.

The stacking system was designed to fit a single size pancake and uses a servo controlled pneumatically actuated jaw arrangement to provide a continuous stacking motion. A short acceleration conveyor upstream of the stackers creates space between the product to ensure each item is stacked cleanly.

Operation is via a user-friendly touch screen HMI with menu selections for choice of stack height from three to six pancakes.