The hygienic conveyor system delivers safe and efficient handling of fragile, naked food products in demanding production environments. Designed for direct product contact, the system combines food-grade stainless-steel construction with custom guides, protective covers, and crumb collection trays to reduce chipping and contamination risk. The modular design enables seamless brownfield retrofits into confined spaces, ensuring stable product flow at high speeds without complex precision indexing.
Food manufacturers processing delicate products face a critical challenge: maintaining product integrity while achieving high throughput and meeting strict hygiene standards. Legacy conveyor systems often cause excessive product damage and lack the hygienic design required for modern food safety protocols. Products such as naked instant noodle cakes — lightweight, fragile, and prone to chipping — require particularly careful handling to maintain quality throughout the production process.
This application solves both challenges simultaneously. The food-grade stainless-steel construction meets FDA compliance while enabling easy manual cleaning through open frames, sloped surfaces, and tool-less access points. Custom mechanical elements—including optimized side guides, protective top covers, and integrated crumb collection trays—minimize product contact points and prevent contamination traps. With throughput exceeding 100 pieces per minute across line lengths greater than 30 meters, the system delivers continuous flow without requiring precision indexing. The brownfield retrofit capability adapts to existing production layouts, preserving capital investments while upgrading performance.
Technical Solution
To meet these demanding specifications, a tailor-made automation solution is designed around the VFP 90 STS Clean Conveyor (stainless, food-grade design).
The base platform is a VFP 90 STS Clean Conveyor, sized for medium conveying speeds and long line length. Conveying elements include a food-grade chain with low surface roughness, radiused transitions, and optimized nose bars for gentle take-over. Accumulation-capable sections buffer upstream variations.
Product protection is ensured by custom side guides with optimized clearances to prevent edge contact, adjustable support rails to maintain cake geometry, and controlled transfer gaps.
The hygiene concept features an open, stainless-steel frame with sloped surfaces, removable top covers for inspection, tool-less access where feasible, integrated crumb/fragment collection trays for easy disposal, and minimal horizontal ledges.
Retrofit integration involves engineered supports and brackets adapted to existing machine frames and tie-ins to upstream/downstream equipment without major reworking, maintaining a controlled speed profile for continuous flow.
Key Features & Benefits
Verifiable Reduction in Product Damage: Gentle transfers, controlled guides, and smooth chain interfaces verifiably reduce noodle chipping and deformation.
Superior Hygienic Design: Food-grade conveyor with open, stainless-steel frame, easy manual access for cleaning, and integrated crumb collection reduces sanitation time and contamination risk.
High Throughput & Stable Flow: Achieves over 100 pcs/min with stable product flow and rough alignment, simplifying controls and lowering system complexity.
Brownfield-Ready Retrofit: Minimizes downtime and preserves existing assets, accelerating time-to-benefit with seamless integration into confined spaces.
Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Modular components, stainless construction, and reduced unplanned stops from product damage contribute to lower TCO.
Standardizable Architecture: Solution is applicable to similar naked/fragile CPG products, enabling repeat deployments.
Build your Application with Bosch Rexroth Products
The solution shown here is based on a system that integrates various Bosch Rexroth components, including conveyor technologies, automation platform, and structural elements. Please note that you can also purchase these components individually from us to build your specific application. The links to the respective product pages are listed here.
Bosch Rexroth VarioFlow Belt Systems: Enable smooth and reliable transport of workpiece carriers up to 20 kg.
The Bosch Rexroth Aluminum Profiles and EcoSafe Protective Fence Components: Are flexible and ensure compliance and safety.
The ctrlX AUTOMATION Platform from Bosch Rexroth: Manages all processes and tasks and is a flexible gateway to other systems.