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Organic processes ensure that each cheese has its own aroma and flavor. For example, the cheeses must be regularly turned and brushed with brine: formerly a manual and labor-intensive job, but automatic in modern cheese cellars. Kaesaro develops and produces state-of-the-art cheese cellar robots in combination with intralogistics systems to perform these tasks. The Swiss company connects sensors and actuators in cheese cellar robots with Murrelektronik's F&B Pro connectors.
Text Johan Debaere | Image Kaesaro/Murrelektronik
Kaesaro's state-of-the-art cheese cellar robots are combined with intralogistics systems. These transport the cheeses individually or in groups of up to 250 and feed them to the robots, where they are maintained with brushes of different hardness and brine. Depending on the desired maturity, this process takes several months or even more than a year. These plants operate 24/24 and 7/7, which poses the necessary challenges for the plant connection technology. To ensure hygiene, they are cleaned regularly, even under high pressure and with aggressive cleaning agents. Due to the constant transport of the cheeses, the connectors are also moved very frequently.
To connect the sensors and actuators of their systems, those responsible at Kaesaro chose F&B Pro series M12 connectors from Murrelektronik, which are specially designed for use in the food industry. Thanks to its hygienic design in accordance with EHEDG specifications, this F&B Pro is easy to clean. The connector has no corners and edges for dirt to accumulate, and the blue cable jacket makes it particularly easy to detect contamination from milk or saline lye and mold. The screw connections of the F&B Pro made of stainless steel in V4A (1.4404) have maximum resistance to corrosion and other environmental influences. For maintenance, the cables can be easily unscrewed and replaced. Compared to single-core cabling, the pluggability of the pre-assembled cables also ensures faster installation. High protection classes IP65, IP66K, IP67, IP68 and IP69K are achieved. The high strength of F&B Pro cables made of PP material helps prevent cable breaks. They are designed for 5 million bending cycles and 2 million torsion cycles (± 360°/m). This ensures less maintenance, which is a major advantage in a system designed for continuous availability.
