DENSO Robotics has developed “Robot Protective Jacket for Food Processing” that can be cleaned with chemicals such as hypochlorous acid. We start accepting orders for this product.

The Robot Protective Jacket for Food Processing covers a robot and allows for the use of hypochlorous acid and other chemicals for cleaning. The jacket is made of a material that conforms with the Standards and Criteria for Food and Food Additives, Etc., (1),(2) prescribed by the Food Sanitation Act and offers IPx4 durability at the time of shipping.(3) The dedicated mounting flange is applied with H1 grease which causes no health hazards even if it enters the human mouth. Since the jacket is designed to be placed over a robot and tied with strings, it is easy to attach and detach. The food-handling robot jacket allows for easy, low-cost automation of food manufacturing processes and others that require strict sanitation control.

When considering the introduction of robotics to food manufacturing processes, main concerns of customers are whether the robots are compatible with H1 grease, whether the robots are resistant to hypochlorous acid and whether the robots conform with the Food Sanitation Act. Hypochlorous acid is one of the representative cleaning and sterilizing chemicals used in food factories. This chemical as well as other cleaning chemicals must be safely usable on food-handling robots. These issues can be solved by developing dedicated robots for food manufacturing applications, but that would result in increased cost and require a development lead time. In view of this, DENSO Robotics has developed the food-handling robot jacket.

DENSO Robotics continues to develop products that meet the customer’s needs for high speed, practicality and sanitation in an effort to contribute to the improvement of production efficiency.

1. (1) Criteria specified in “No. 3 Apparatus and containers/packages” in Ministerial Notification No. 370 (1959) of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfar
2. (2) Excluding sewing threads

(3) It is recommended to replace the robot jacket once a year. Inspect the jacket on a regular basis. If the jacket has scratches or frays, immediate replacement is recommended.