Food-handling bot to make its debut at Automate 2022
Engineering360 News Desk | June 06, 2022FANUC America, a leader in CNCs, robotics and robomachines, will introduce the new DR-3iB/6 STAINLESS delta robot for primary food handling at Automate 2022, which is held June 6-9 in Detroit, Michigan, at booth #3323.
The new DR-3iB/6 STAINLESS is FANUC’s first stainless steel food-grade delta robot for picking and packing primary food products. Rated IP69K, the robot meets U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food safety standards, and sets a new benchmark for robotic food handling in terms of payload, speed, reach and sanitation.
The DR-3iB/6 STAINLESS features a fully enclosed stainless steel body that is resistant to the chemicals and high pressure/temperatures required in strict wash down environments. The robot’s mirror-like surface finish ensures that any microbial contaminants can be washed away cleanly. With additional features such as NSF H1 food grade lubricant, secondary oil catch basins (with viewing windows to monitor potential leaks), self-draining surfaces, and many other small details driven by USDA/FDA standards, the DR-3iB/6 STAINLESS is ideally suited for primary food handling applications.
“The new DR-3iB/6 STAINLESS robot combines FANUC’s industry-leading performance and reliability with a food-safe stainless steel construction,” said Jessica Juhasz, staff engineer, FANUC America. “We’re happy to offer a food processing robot that will help companies maximize production efficiencies without compromising food safety.”
The DR-3iB/6 STAINLESS has a 1200 mm reach (400 mm height) and a powerful four-axis design allowing it to handle 6 kg payloads at high speeds. The new robot operates with FANUC’s latest R-30iB Plus controller with integrated intelligent functions such as iRVision, Force Sensing, Robot Link, Collision Guard and Zero Down Time (ZDT).
At the show, the new DR-3iB/6 STAINLESS delta robot using a Soft Robotics gripper will pick bakery, dairy and meat products from the middle section of the demonstration’s work area and place them in specified zones.