July 23, 2008

FANUC Robotics America, Inc. announced that its M-430iA/2F high-speed, food picking robot is the first robot to meet the hygiene requirements for meat and poultry processing, and receive equipment acceptance from the USDA.

The M-430iA is built in accordance with the USDA, AMS hygiene requirements for the materials, design, and fabrication of equipment used in the preparation and packaging of food products, according to Sumeet Vispute, product manager of FANUC Robotics.

Vispute said the M-430iA robot has met or exceeded the USDA, AMS criteria, passed inspection, and earned the right to bear the USDA, AMS Meat and Poultry Accepted Equipment logo.

Designed specifically for food washdown environments, the M-430iA/2F food robot is capable of picking primary food and packaged products at speeds up to 120 cycles per minute on a continuous basis while using visual line tracking. In addition, the compact robot can be mounted in a variety of positions including floor, wall or invert, which maximizes flexibility for tight workspaces.

FANUC Robotics America, Inc. designs, engineers and manufactures industrial robots and robotic systems for a wide range of applications including arc and spot welding, material handling (machine tending, picking, packing, palletizing), material removal, assembly, paint finishing and dispensing. FANUC Robotics is the leading robotics company in the US. A subsidiary of FANUC LTD in Japan, the company is headquartered in Detroit, and has facilities in Chicago; Los Angeles; Charlotte, N.C.; Cincinnati and Toledo, Ohio; Toronto; Montreal; Aguascalientes, Mexico; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.