Sensing Conveyance System Limits, with Limit Switches.

 

The mass production of food products is a fascinating business, requiring the specification of many different types of technology in many different operating environments. In some cases, massive amounts of raw food product has to be carefully cooked and packaged and kept at certain temperatures for certain amounts of time, all done in a hygienic way so as not to poison folks and such.

A great example that recently came to our attention was for a rotary conveyor in a huge freezer shown above. In this case, the food is already cooked and simply needs to be moved around within cold storage via trays that ride on a track. In this environment, moisture, condensation, and icing is an unavoidable problem and the machinery occasionally gets off track – literally.

CPI Cold Operating Limit Switches

Unlike typical commercial switches and sensors that run from 0 to 70 C, even basic CPI limit switches are fully IP68 rated and sealed in Santoprene which gives them a default temperature rating of -40C to 100C.

But long and deep experience has taught us that cold and wet environments pose unique problems for switch operation that even switches with low temperature ratings may have challenges overcoming. In one such experience it was found that switches that were actuated for long periods of time would “freeze” in place upon release due to the deformity of the thermoplastic boot which could not be pushed back into its original state upon release. In cases that exist at the edge of cold temperature operation, CPI recommends our military grade limit switch where the temperature range goes all the way down to -65F. These switches are encased in neoprene rubber which avoids the semi-permanent deformity that is possible with thermoplastic seals. And with CPI’s USA based, in house manufacturing team, the cost of producing these in quantity is on par with their Santoprene cousins.

In the case of our rotary conveyor, a series of CPI E1100 angle mount brackets using our B series momentary switch provide feedback to the rotary controller when the system is off the track. In this application our switches are daisy-chained so that any detection of a failed conveyor will immediately pause the conveyor, while requiring only one monitoring point at the controller.

CPI Tastes Good on Food Processing Equipment

In the mass production of food products, CPI limit switches have been used for position and safety sensing in both hot and cold environments. They not only take the heat/cold, but they do it for a really really long time.

Call our team today, lets see what we can cook up for you!

This blog was originally published at https://www.cpi-nj.com/conveying-food/