Baking & Snack - November 2008 - 88

PAN SYSTEMS

Pan
HANDLING

The latest advances in automated pan management systems include new
control systems and laser-guided transfer vehicles.

BY SHANE WHITAKER
aking pans can be hot and heavy, which could potentially lead to injuries. Retrieving and storing
pans can be a major chore in any bakery, but in
high-speed bread and bun bakeries, it is a near impossible task for a single worker. Accordingly, automated
pan management systems play an ever-important role in
helping to inventory, store and circulate a bakery's pans.
The newest and most modern bakeries feature pan
handling systems that require virtually no human intervention whatsoever, save selecting pan sets for processing, according to Bryan Mannion, marketing manager,
Stewart Systems, Plano, TX. "Pan handling has become
more and more automated in modern bakeries," he said.
"It's hard to imagine an industrial bakery of any size
without automatic pan stacking and unstacking."
A typical person could manually process approximately
15 pans per minute, Mr. Mannion estimated. This is no
where near the speed needed to feed a high-speed bread or
bun line. Thus, automated pan systems have accompanied
the development of today's high-speed bakery lines.

LASER MEASURE. Customer feedback and in-house
R&D led Weldon Solutions, York, PA, to develop innovations with its pan handling systems during the past year.
One of the newest features it offers is the use of laser positioning of the transfer vehicle. "Lasers have been used
for accurate positioning of the pan shuttle for years," said
Charles Gales, manager, automation systems, Weldon
Solutions. "The onboard transfer vehicle, however, was

previously positioned by means of moving components
such as sensor flags or linear encoders. These items were
traditionally the single biggest cause of unplanned downtime for the entire automated pan storage system."
Workhorse Automation, Oxford, PA, also uses laser guidance systems as distance measuring devices
on its systems. "The laser-guided system has several
advantages," said Ken Mentch, sales manager, Workhorse.
"First, it is faster. Also, it is more accurate, so our system offers more precise positioning. And it is a lot more
maintenance friendly or maintenance free - not as
many breakdowns."
Updating controls is another focus area for Workhorse.
"Our software is much more advanced than the original
systems were, and we have taken a lot of errors out of
the system," Mr. Mentch said. "And we have made them
maintenance friendly, so when errors do occur, we show
the operators where it is at and give them the three most
likely causes of the error."
End users are generally amazed at the logic in controls
that really make them a simple system, Mr. Mentch noted.
"As advanced as controls are and as fast as the processes
are, you can put a lot of logic in there," he said. "It is really
complicated inside the PLC, but on the outside world it
is very simple."
ᮡ Pan stackers/unstackers are important pieces of pan handling equipment
in high-speed bun and bread bakeries.
STEWART SYSTEMS

November 2008 / BAKING & SNACK

Baking & Snack - November 2008

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