We’re excited to share our latest upgrade to Chef’s robots: electric, automatically-leveling feet. Previously, Chef customers needed to adjust each robot’s feet with wrenches and manual leveling screws. Now, Chef’s latest robots feature feet that are adjustable with the touch of a button, substantially reducing bring-up time at the start of production and changeover time.
Flooring at food manufacturing plants is intentionally sloped. Because of high volumes of liquid runoff, water troughs and sloped drainage systems are essential for maintaining cleanliness and safety. These slopes and systems present challenges when trying to place equipment flush and level on production floors; if a robot is unlevel, the slopes also present challenges with weight scale readings.
Chef AI-enabled robots are designed to move between assembly lines during changeovers. To account for variations in floor level, in addition to locking the casters, customers need to lower a Chef robot’s feet when moving it to a different line to prevent it from vibrating or shaking. This takes time and slows down changeovers. Chef’s new automatically-leveling feet simplify this process, requiring customers only to press a button to adjust the robot’s feet, keeping it perfectly level with minimal effort. This will make it substantially easier and quicker to move Chef robots around from station to station or line to line during changeovers, without the need for tools.
Automatically-leveling feet are built with food safety and reliability in mind
We’ve taken measures to ensure that automatically-leveling feet are easy to clean, safe to use in environments that produce food, and reliably adjustable:
- IP69K-rated for superior resistance to high-pressure, high-temperature washdowns
- Hygienic design with a fully sealed shaft so water can’t enter and cause bacterial growth
- NSF-certified, ensuring compliance with strict sanitation standards
- Easy to clean and built to withstand rigid cleaning protocols
- Manual backup in the event of an electrical failure
Automatically-leveling feet are already increasing operational efficiency for several Chef customers, including Amy’s Kitchen, Cafe Spice, and Avatar Natural Foods.
Chef continuously engineers new features and improvements to ensure our modules remain the best the market has to offer. To stay up to date on our latest releases, follow us on LinkedIn.
