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Simulate your retort room handling process

Soups, sauces, ready meals, wet pet food, canned vegetables or pharma products?

Which handling system suits best, depends among other things, on your product type, capacity and number of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). Lan Handling Technologies is the expert in (sterilised) product handling, especially when it comes to innovative, cost-effective solutions that will prepare your production facility for a sustainable future.

Handling is a crucial part

Being connected to your fillers, retorts and packaging machines makes an efficient handling system a crucial part in your process, that requires high uptime and ultimate adaptability. How do you ensure 100% tray-filling if the fillers are out of sync? And what happens if a retort suddenly needs maintenance? You can now easily simulate these and other scenarios in our tool.

Retort automation products (food packages)

With this simulation you can...

Identify potential bottlenecks in your production line.
See which lay-out suits best for an optimum product flow.
Find out how to deploy your staff safely and efficiently.

Choose your product > start simulation & get in control!

Note: loading the simulation tool may take a while. Only available on desktop. For optimal performance, we recommend using the Chrome or Firefox browser.

Pouch / tub
Can / jar / bottle

Enter your product details and find out!

We are happy to give you advice.

Our advice - Points of attention

100% tray-filling

As soon as your pouches or tubs come out of the filler, make sure the robot can pick up a completely and tightly aligned pattern as efficient as possible.

In reality, filling machines are often out of sync. Having multiple filling machines connected to one loader, can create problems in the efficient formation of your products. To still guarantee 100% tray-filling, consider our compensation unit. As soon as one filling machine fails and gaps are formed, this unit will hold your pouches and will ensure complete product rows.

And.. did you know that integrating a flattener at the infeed of your pouches has two purposes? It makes it easier to have your products picked up by the robot and it also improves the processing, because the contents are better distributed within the pouch which improves heat processing.

Retort pouch handling tray for autoclave

Future proof?

Nowadays, we increasingly see customers running multiple product sizes across one production line, for example, 225g, 500g, 550g, and 2000g pouches. Or a variety of flavored tubs for multipack process.

This is of course motivated by continuously changing consumer behavior. That’s why we specialise in configuring quick and easy format changeover systems to ensure flexibility in your production line. For example, our special reversible tray can be used to load both large and small pouches.

In terms of a multipack process, we have extensive experience in engineering the optimal logistics process. For example with interim product storage, after which we bring the various flavors together towards the downstream packaging machines.

Efficient retort (un)loading

Our transport area is optimised for efficiency, safety and ultimate agility. Ever thought of a double retort slide, for food safety? Or an extra buffer lane to temporarily store a batch if a retort fails or needs maintenance?

Since we have built 300+ handling systems worldwide, we know that operating our fully automated handling system, including a shuttle for loading and unloading your retorts, requires only a maximum of two employees on average.

Given that ergonomics are becoming more important and wages continue to rise, you may prefer to deploy personnel in places where they can maximum value to the process. If so, automation can be beneficial.

Dry before packaging

Did you know that the residual water left on your pouches or tubs after the sterilisation process can seriously complicate the direct packaging process of your products.

That is why we have developed a special in-line dryer that dries even the most difficult stand-up pouch (with a harder to dry gusset!) spouted pouch or split tub.

Thanks to our inline solution, your tubs and pouches are dried directly in the robot head. This way, you do not have to pick up your products an extra time and no complex transport system is needed.

Directly ready for packaging!

Our advice - Points of attention

100% sterilisation

The content of your cans or jars largely determines which type of product carrier and layer pads are most suitable. In order to guarantee a 100% flawless sterilisation process, it is important that the core of the product is optimally heated. In collaboration with your retort supplier, we ensure the most optimal layer pad handling.

Reducing as many blind spots as possible is the challenge. Of course, we also have handling systems that work with layer pads without any blind spots.

In addition, it is recommended to integrate a sampling function in your production line. In this way you can easily check whether a product has indeed undergone the required heat treatment. Food safety first!

Future proof?

You won’t be the first of our customers that requires at least 8 different can sizes to be handled on one production line. Based on ever-changing consumer demands, you potentially need to increase the number of SKU’s in your portfolio over time?

Thanks to our easy-to-exchange pattern former and side guides, this job is done within minutes. Our user-friendly HMI helps your operator step by step through the operations.

This way we guarantee a high uptime of your production system!

Efficient retort (un)loading

Dry before packaging

Did you know that the residual water left on your pouches or tubs after the sterilisation process can seriously complicate the direct packaging process of your products.

That is why we have developed a robust dewatering unit, integrated into your transport system and suitable for a single or several baskets at the same time.

By tilting your baskets containing your products at a defined angle (up to 80 degrees!), you make sure your cans or jars are dry enough for immediate packaging. Let’s go!