Food and pharma impose high requirements on machinery—including handling systems. Machinery directive 2006/42/EC includes hygiene guidance for machines used with food or cosmetic or pharmaceutical products, covering design, installation, and execution. Lifting equipment must not introduce contamination, must be easy to clean and disinfect, and the same applies to vacuum tube lifters common in food plants.
The ezzFAST vacuum lifter is used wherever speed matters. Goods are moved quickly, safely, and ergonomically—especially loading/unloading, transhipment, palletising, and picking. Besides typical packages such as sacks, cartons, and drums—easily six units per minute—it handles buckets, crates, sheets, panels, rolls, and coils. With the right end effector it adapts to many tasks—for example picking standing sacks and laying them horizontally on pallets, or emptying sacks, buckets, and small load carriers (KLT).
The example above is a dairy installation. In the hygienic stainless version, with approved seal materials and hygienic design (surface finish, easy cleaning), ezzFAST suits hygienic environments. It beats some pneumatic systems because it does not blow contaminants into the zone—it draws air and exhausts outside the hygienic area. Pump, filter, and valves are placed outside so air flows in one direction only.
The plant produces milk sugar used in pharma. The task was to pick milk sugar after filling and palletise. Packaging is sacks, drums, or cartons. The fast handling system is ezzFAST with quick-change coupling and different cups for all packages. Cups and quick-change unit are stainless. The room must be wet-cleaned with disinfectant, so the equipment must withstand wet cleaning.
Because products move to different points in the filling area, a one-way rail system with switches carries the lifter over the full work area.
Vacuum lifter also for low headroom
ezzFAST offers further options: compact height-saving components for low ceilings; control handles adapted for high product stacks and tall cartons; fast cup changes; tilt and rotate, electrically or pneumatically assisted. Products up to 40 kg move safely and intuitively.
ezzFAST relieves heavy lifting, protects against lifting hazards, and lets one person do jobs that used to need two—improving competitiveness, effectiveness, and safety.