Pain Point

The current bread-handling system is based on a pick-and-place robot, but it never reached a stable, fully operational state. While the robot was technically able to pick, place, spread, and divert bread onto the correct conveyors, it suffered from frequent and unpredictable breakdowns. When a stoppage occurred, bread would accumulate and bunch up in front of the robot. Upon restart, that backlog would surge downstream, overloading and causing failures on the next conveyor, then the next one in sequence.

Because the system could not be restarted in a controlled, synchronized manner, operators were forced to completely clear the line before restarting. This lack of coordinated recovery made production highly inefficient and unreliable. As a result, the system was ultimately abandoned and has remained unused for approximately four years.

Rexfab Solution

The proposed solution is a row-based bread handling and pushing system designed to move bread reliably from cooling conveyors directly to the slicers and baggers. Unlike the previous pick and place robot, this solution relies on continuous flow, controlled row movement, and mechanical simplicity—eliminating pileups, restart issues, and cascading failures.

The system has no functional restriction on bread type, loaf count, or loaf length. The only true limitations are line speed and the downstream equipment capacity (slicer and bagger).

How the System Works

When bread exits the cooling spiral, it needs to be aligned and straightened into clean, consistent rows. To achieve this, each row enters the “gap” conveyor to ensure sufficient spacing for proper alignment. After that, the rows pass onto the setup conveyor, which uses guides to group them according to the required limits set on the HMI. They then move onto the alignment conveyor, which automatically adjusts its speed to deliver properly aligned bread to the pusher stations. The alignment design is simple and does not require additional moving bars to stop the bread. The bread pusher does exactly one thing: it takes a complete row and pushes it.

• Whether a row contains 3, 4, 5, or more loaves does not matter.
• The system always handles one full row at a time.

When the row reaches the pusher, it is pushed cleanly and positively across the transfer point and onto the next conveyor, guiding the bread directly where it needs to go.

Handling Long or Unusual Bread

Bread length, shape, or toppings do not restrict the system.

For very long loaves, the pusher contacts the bread closer to the middle to maintain straight, stable movement. If a specific product tends to contact side rails or shows any tendency to drift, the system can be fine-tuned by:

• Adjusting the push timing
• Adjusting the push point
• Adjusting the angle of the pusher

For example, if pushing slightly earlier allows the row to clear a rail cleanly, the timing can be adjusted accordingly. These adjustments make the system highly adaptable to different bread formats without mechanical changes.

Throughput, Speed, and Scalability

There are no hard throughput limits inherent to the pushing concept itself.

In depanning operations, there is always a small gap between pans. As long as that gap exists, rows can be pushed reliably and without interference. The system scales based on how many rows per minute need to be moved—not on loaf count.

The true driver of throughput is conveyor speed, which is ultimately linked to oven speed:

• If the oven runs faster, the depanner can run faster.
• When bread reaches the pusher more quickly, the pushers operate at a higher cycle rate.

Based on theoretical calculations, a single bread pusher can handle approximately 35–40 rows per minute. Since the system includes up to three pushers, total capacity can be increased proportionally.

With sufficient spacing between rows, the entire current production could technically be run on a double pusher, providing significant built in headroom. The decision to use one, two, or three pushers is simply based on how many rows per minute the customer wants to push.

Redundancy and Line Resilience

The system is designed to operate normally with two pushers, with the third serving as redundancy.

If one pusher becomes unavailable, production can continue by running all three pushers—without stopping, clearing the line, or restarting the system. This removes the single point of failure issue that plagued the previous robot-based solution.

Downstream Constraints

While the pushing system offers substantial capacity, the final production limit will always be set by the slicers and baggers.

• You can push more bread, but slicers and baggers do not run faster.
• As production increases, the customer may decide whether one, two, or three downstream lines are required to absorb the flow.

The bread handling system is therefore designed to feed whatever configuration the customer chooses, without becoming the bottleneck.

Traction and Mechanical Design Advantage

A major differentiator of this solution is the completely redesigned pusher traction and guidance system.

Unlike older designs—such as systems that relied on small belt teeth and introduced speed and durability limitations—this system uses a timing belt style drive, similar in concept to an automotive timing belt.

Key benefits of this design:

• Pusher pallets are mechanically indexed to the belt teeth
• Sensors always know the exact position of the pusher
• The entire belt system runs inside a guided track
• No backlash, no slippage, and no looseness

This ensures precise timing, high traction, and long-term stability, even at high cycle rates.

The system has been tested continuously over long operating periods without failure and is expected to deliver up to 10 years of service life under normal operating conditions.