When your automated food or beverage machine requires controlled precise linear or smooth rotary motion, the bearings you choose must combine high performance and exceptional durability to optimize your production line’s throughput and efficiency. In this first post of our series on bearings for food and beverage applications, we’ll show you some common automated food and beverage applications that particularly need a robust bearing outfitted for rust and contamination prevention and long life.

Here is an overview of some typical food and beverage manufacturing systems and equipment along with the bearings that can meet their motion and hygienic requirements.

• Canning. Thousands of bearings are used in canning lines. The equipment requires them to operate at high speeds with short cycle times for maximum efficiency. Crossed roller bearings (CRBs) effectively handle heavy loads without vibrations.
• Packaging/filling/bottling. Linear guides are often installed in mechanisms that move products and containers horizontally or vertically into position with precision. Rotary bearings are used in indexing mechanisms, filling nozzles, capping applicators or to rotate bottles for labelling.
• Conveyor Systems. Linear guides align and help sort or position objects at various stages of transport. Crossed roller bearings are particularly effective in belt-driven conveyors that handle high loads or high volumes of goods.
• Meat processing. Linear guide rails help move various meats into place on conveyors or platforms, and they can guide cutting blades used to slice and dice meat products with precision.
• Mixers, tumblers and grinders. Rotary bearings are used in mixing arms and grinding blades for baked goods or meat products.
• Additive manufacturing. 3D printers aren’t just for plastics. Various machines can extrude or sinter ingredients into edible food creations, and linear bearings guide the print head or print bed to build layers and shapes.

Look for a Wide Range of Durable Components

As you begin evaluating motion components for your automated food application, there are many things to look for in a supplier. IKO provides a wide selection of durable motion components, including stainless steel options, along with necessary accessories and application support. This ensures reliable and safe performance, even in food and beverage processing environments where messy ingredients and high-pressure washdowns are prevalent.

Our products lineup features linear guides in stainless steel versions and multiple sizes for superior corrosion resistance; CRBs with rollers alternately crossed at right angles to each other between inner and outer rings to handle loads from any direction at the same time, making them desirable for robotic end effectors that handle soft food items or in any other equipment with tight spaces; and bushings and cam followers with special design elements that are well-suited for use in food production equipment. And, our ThrustDisk™ cam followers feature a synthetic resin seal that prevents wear and contamination.

For more information, please visit our industry page.