The food and drink industry is the UK’s biggest manufacturing sector by turnover, and is valued at £104.4bn at the time of writing.
Like many industrial sectors, the production of food and beverages often requires various equipment to facilitate the movement of goods throughout the facility.
Metreel is a leading UK supplier of material handling equipment such as overhead cranes, jib cranes, gantry cranes, monorails and portable cranes.
Keep reading to discover the ways that material handling equipment including the types we supply here at Metreel can support food and beverage production companies. Specifically, in terms of boosting productivity, scalability and safety in one.
Overhead Cranes
Overhead cranes make excellent use of what is often redundant space in a building. They offer fantastic lifting capabilities for lifting heavy machinery, mixing vessels, or large ingredient containers required within food and beverage production facilities.
Example applications:
- Lifting industrial blenders or tanks for maintenance
- Moving heavy dies, moulds or packaging machinery
- Transferring large loads to/from high-clean areas
Advantages:
- Overhead cranes can provide high lifting capacity across a large area of a food and production facility
- Working overhead avoids congestion on the factory floor
- Customisable for hygienic design (i.e. the use of stainless steel or sealed components)
Jib Cranes
Jib cranes like the ones you’ll find here at Metreel provide the benefit of offering rotations up to 360 degrees for extensive coverage. Available in wall or floor mounted configurations, our jib cranes can be used with other types of lifting equipment such as hoists, balancers and vacuum lifters.
Example applications:
- Lifting ingredient sacks into mixers
- Assisting in packaging line tool changes
- Supporting cleanroom environments with low footprint
Advantages:
- Metreel jib cranes can be wall or floor-mounted, ensuring the ideal solution can be found for your food and beverage production facility
- Easy to use for frequent or repetitive tasks
- Ideal for supporting ergonomic material handling
Gantry Cranes (Fixed or Mobile)
Food and beverage production facilities can have varied lifting requirements, including the need to lift in different areas of the facility. Gantry cranes, and in particular mobile gantry cranes, are apt for the job. They offer flexible lifting of medium-to-heavy loads where no overhead structure exists.
Example applications:
- Key zones like maintenance areas, temporary setups, outdoor or loading areas
- Handling heavy loads during facility maintenance or relocation
- Ideal for modular or expanding production lines
Advantages:
- Available in portable or rail-mounted options
- Can be dismantled or repositioned
- Suited to washdown environments if properly specified
Monorail Systems
For lifting materials along a fixed path, monorail overhead cranes are ideal. In a food and beverage facility, there could be a need for a linear transfer of materials between production zones, ovens, coolers or packaging lines.
Example applications:
- Moving hanging meat or product trays
- Ingredient transfer in linear cooking lines
- Linking clean-to-dirty zones (e.g. cooked vs raw areas)
Advantages:
- Smooth, consistent movement
- Low contamination risk (minimal floor interaction)
- Adaptable for automated or manual systems
Key Considerations When Choosing Lifting Equipment For The Food & Beverage Industry
When selecting lifting equipment for food and beverage production environments, some of the main considerations relate to sanitation, safety and operational efficiency. In particular, the industry has various hygiene standards that need to be adhered to.
Some key considerations include:
- Material handling choice to ensure sanitation, including the need for any equipment to undergo frequent cleaning, so that a sterile environment can be maintained
- The loads to be lifted, including the typical material type, size and weight
- If the facility has any space constraints, such as low ceilings or a busy production floor
- The typical machinery downtime for cleaning and maintenance and the impact this will have on the speed of production
- Any other safety or practical requirements that the lifting solutions need to accommodate
If you work with us here at Metreel, we can help select the best lifting equipment to suit your food and beverage production application. In the meantime, the above points offer a starting point to help you choose the right solutions.
Enquire About Our Lifting Equipment For Food & Beverage Production UK
Do you own, or work on behalf of the food and beverage industry in the UK?
Metreel is a leading supplier of material handling, powerfeed and height safety equipment in the UK.
Contact us today to learn more about our heavy-duty lifting equipment, which can improve safety and productivity in your food and beverage production facility.
You can also give our Derbyshire HQ a call on 0115 932 7010.
While you’re here, be sure to check out our case studies to see our industrial solutions in action.