Case Study: Bakery Packages Cookies With MARTIN® NTK® Oscillator

Problem

A large bakery in Atlanta, Georgia shipped broken cookie pieces in bulk to be used in cookies & cream ice cream. The cookies are cooked whole, broken, and fed by conveyor into boxes that are lined with a plastic bag. The process is continuous, and the operator was often left shaking the boxes to level the cookies and remove air pockets that developed between the box and the plastic.

Situation

Shaking the boxes to level product slows production and decreases speed and daily output. In addition, the repetitive shaking of boxes caused complaints of fatigue from the operators that resulted in shifting personnel from one task to another, further slowing production. Rather than shaking the entire box conveyor as requested by our customer, we approached this problem by installing a MARTIN^® NTK^® Oscillator (NTK-25).

Solution

MARTIN^® Vibration Systems fabricated an assembly to attach to the underside of the live roller conveyor, piped the vibrator to be activated by foot pedal at the operations station, and included a rubber pad on the piston end of the vibrator to be used as a “strike plate.” When activated, the MARTIN^® NTK-25 taps the box (similar to the shaking procedure used by the operator), levels the cookies, and helps dissipate the air pockets. This one vibrator increased output, reduced employee complaints, and eliminated the need for additional controls and conveyor modification.