Category: News
When designing conveying systems for bakery and snack food manufacturers, achieving smooth product transfers while maintaining product orientation can present a significant challenge. Recently, Western Mechanical Handling UK Ltd (WMH) developed and installed an innovative conveyor solution that demonstrates the versatility and advantages of polycord conveyor technology in modern food production environments.
The Challenge
Products exiting an inline fryer were presented with their wide edge leading. For the next stage of processing, these products needed to be rotated through 90° so they travelled narrow edge leading, while still maintaining clearly defined product lanes.
In addition to the reorientation requirement, the overall width of the product flow had to be reduced to suit downstream equipment, creating a complex handling challenge that required both precision and reliability.
The Solution
WMH’s engineering team addressed the issue using a series of specially designed polycord conveyors fitted with chamfered end rollers to create a scarfed conveyor edge.
This configuration enabled the products to be transferred diagonally between conveyors, gradually rotating them through 90° while simultaneously narrowing the overall conveyor width. Crucially, the system maintained product separation throughout the process, ensuring a consistent product presentation for the next stage of production.
The use of polycord technology proved particularly advantageous. Because polycord conveyors utilise multiple narrow belts rather than a continuous belt surface, the designers were able to incorporate very small terminal roller diameters. This created exceptionally tight transfer points, allowing products to move seamlessly from one conveyor to the next without disruption.
The benefit was especially noticeable when handling the smaller of the two product sizes for which the system was designed, where transfer reliability is often more difficult to achieve.
Why Polycord Conveyors?
Polycord conveyors are increasingly popular throughout the bakery sector due to their flexibility, hygiene benefits and product-handling capabilities.
Key advantages include:
- Excellent product transfers through the use of small-diameter terminal rollers.
- Hygienic open-belt design that allows thorough cleaning between production runs.
- Improved food safety, with crumbs and debris falling through the conveyor rather than being carried to downstream equipment.
- Flexible conveyor layouts, making them ideal for product alignment, lane reduction and orientation applications.
- Reduced product damage thanks to smooth, controlled transfers between conveyor sections.
A Smart Solution for Modern Bakeries
This project highlights how innovative conveyor design can solve multiple handling challenges within a single system. By combining precise product orientation, lane management and hygienic design principles, WMH delivered a solution that not only met the customer’s production requirements but also supported the high cleanliness standards demanded by today’s food manufacturing industry.
As bakeries continue to seek greater efficiency and improved hygiene performance, polycord conveyor systems remain an effective and versatile solution for a wide range of product handling applications.