L-A-C Logistics Automation has designed and installed a bespoke conveyor and robotic solution for a London-based insect farm.
The solution has been installed at Entocycle’s London Bridge base, providing them with a fully automated, modular system to showcase their offering.
Entocycle is a UK insect technology company, rearing insects in the heart of London, and developing technologies required to accelerate insect farming as an industry.
To attract investors and potential customers, Entocycle was looking to create a ‘Centre for Insect Technology’ combining their R&D operations with a dedicated sales showroom to demonstrate their eco-system.
Optimising the available space within the tight confines of the London railway arches, L-A-C designed a scalable solution that offers speed and accuracy across all nine required processes.
The system is capable of numerous individual operations, which are grouped under two core operations for insect breeding and production.
It can also be programmed to perform other tasks if needed, allowing them to adapt their breeding and production processes as their own technology evolves.
Jude Bliss, Marketing Director at Entocycle commented “The solution from L-A-C has provided us with the perfect platform to showcase our breeding and production processes to potential investors, farming, and waste sector customers.
"Importantly, this also demonstrates how a previously labour-intensive process can be fully automated.”
L-A-C’s solution comprises highly controllable zero-line pressure roller conveyors, an incline belt conveyor, pallet input & output stations, weighing modules, sensors, and controls, alongside an ABB 4600 six-axis robot with specially designed grippers to handle different crate sizes.
The entire solution fits neatly around low ceiling arches and pillars, safely housed within mesh fencing to protect staff working nearby.
The design incorporates several bespoke technology features such as integrated pushers installed in the feed dosing area and additional pushers used for crates on the outer conveyor line, where the specially designed plate slides forward and backwards to push each crate along.
A skewed roller conveyor is specifically angled to ensure accurate placement of crates ready for feed dosing and belt pop-ups are fitted just after this stage to transfer each crate 90 degrees to a straight-line conveyor.
Jude Bliss concluded, “The compact yet highly efficient solution is a testament to the expertise of L-A-C’s design team and highlights our ability to breed and produce large quantities of insects in small spaces yet is equally capable of upscaling to megafarms.”