M.H. group is an example of ideal application for delicate bakery and confectionery products, also perfect for frozen food. Material Handling is an Italian company with three decades of experience in handling and logistics of establishments in many sectors: from food and pharmaceutical packaging to production lines and mechanical and electromechanical assembly. Founded in 1986 and oriented to applications in the automotive and mechanical sector, it also produces service lines for machine tools and assembly stations for electro-mechanical components in general. Strengthened by this experience, since early ‘90s the company has specialized also in food and pharmaceutical sectors, becoming a partner of Italian and international leading producers on these markets and developing solid relationships with several manufacturers of packaging machines. Thanks to this experience, today M.H. offers a wide range of products and is capable of responding to any need for handling and logistics. Its units easily interface with the machinery of any manufacturer and thanks to modular design they are interchangeable and easy to be integrated into existing lines. Among its many available applications the following stand out: buffering systems, systems for sorting, distribution, unification, lifting, rotation and tilting. Such systems can be supplied as complete line accessories or as independent machinery. Attention to the customer begins from the offering phase, when M.H. develops the preliminary draft and arranges the best solutions in terms of productive efficiency and maximum economic benefit. Engineering of the lines is carried out with the aid of 2D and 3D CAD systems that allow minimizing the risks of interferences that haven’t been evaluated at the installation time. All M.H. products are assembled in advance and tested at the establishment in Misinto, located halfway between Milan and Como. The equipment is shipped to the customer only after complete testing, in order to guarantee an installation with no surprises.
Application example: alignment & integration
A typical requirement of the bakery and confectionery sectors, also common in the packaging of frozen foods, is to receive products from cooling coils or freezing tunnels and feed the machines running the first package with these products, which is typical of flowpack. The products arrive directly from a cooler or freezer, many times in messy assemblage, especially when they are frozen products. Then they are arranged in a row on one or more outputs, before entering them into the machine. To meet this requirement, MH designs and creates integration and alignment groups for non-packaged bakery and frozen products. The standard unification group consists of three conveyor belts or modular chains, which jump in speed in order to space incoming products. Above the belts there are some couples of fixed runners, or motorized conveyor belts with adjustable inclination in order to slow down some products, allowing the passage of those that do not come into contact one another, by carrying out the spreading process. Conveyors may be with belts or modular chains, depending on the type of product in process. Conveyor belts are typical of the bakery sector, characterized by products with filling or chocolate, often with very small dimensions. Each conveyor belt is equipped with pneumatic heeling control and roller and counter roller scrapers with related collection tray. The modular chain, instead, is more easily used with frozen products because they don’t have risks of material adhesion on the conveyor’s surface. In this case, however, easily hygienically-cleaned structures are required.
