Chip Processing Line Relocation

This job started as relocating chip processing to another plant, but the interesting engineering ended up being in what changed. The old layout ran slicing as pairs of lines, each tied to its own slicer. The new layout runs multiple single lines, any of which can be routed through either type of slicer. Product no longer belongs to one line, and a slicer going down no longer takes its line down with it. The catch is that something has to decide where product goes.

I designed a custom divert chute to do that, and it’s what makes the new layout possible. Chutes for sliced chips are unforgiving: the product is fragile, doesn’t slide predictably, and anything that hangs up becomes a cleaning problem in a plant that washes down constantly. The divert had to change the product’s path without adding a ledge, pocket, or step for chips to catch on.

At the discharge end, a bi-directional conveyor feeds hoppers with level sensors, so the mechanical design and the sensing had to agree on what “full” means and where the conveyor should be when it happens. I also designed platforms for both slicers, with chutes, spray bars, and drip pans, and a movable fiberglass-grating service platform rated for 60 lb per square foot with a 540 lb slicer on it. Some work, like mounting supports from the ceiling and joining the belt, was deliberately left for the site, since the building’s real dimensions couldn’t be trusted until someone was standing in it.

I never saw this system installed, because I joined JLS before it was finished. The line redesign, divert chute, bi-directional conveyor, and platforms are my work, but I don’t know how it all came together on the floor or what had to change. I think the honest approach is to describe what I designed and not claim the outcome.