Automation has reshaped food and beverage packaging across manufacturing industries over the past decade. Robot arms now handle everything from placing individual chocolates into trays to sorting bottles at high speed, bringing a level of consistency and precision that manual processes cannot reliably achieve.

Across different industries, robotic arm technology has become central to increasing productivity and maintaining the accuracy that high-volume food production demands. But deploying a robotic arm in a food or beverage facility is not as straightforward as selecting the right size or payload capacity. Daily washdown, food acid, airborne moisture, and strict contamination control all place demands on robotic systems that general-purpose automation is simply not built to handle. Every component that makes up a robotic arm in a food packaging environment needs to be chosen with hygiene in mind from the very start.

In this article, we cover the unique hygiene challenges of food and beverage packaging environments, the critical components that make up a food-grade robotic arm, common applications across the industry, and how to select the right components for your packaging line.

Modern food packaging lines use different types of robot arms depending on the task and the space available. Articulated robotic arms with multiple degrees of freedom carry out complex picking and placing movements across several axes, while simpler fixed-axis systems handle repetitive simple assembly work further down the line. Whatever their configuration, all of these systems operate in an environment that standard industrial robotics is not designed to withstand.

Food processing facilities are subject to hygiene regulations that cover every piece of equipment on the production floor, robotic systems included. Under standards such as FDA food safety regulations, EU food hygiene directives, or retailer-specific codes of practice, the materials and components inside automated equipment must pose no risk of contaminating the products being handled. That scrutiny extends to bearings, housings, actuators, lubricants, and surface finishes in ways that do not apply in most other industrial applications.

The consequences of getting this wrong are serious. A bearing seal that fails and releases non-food-grade lubricant onto a production line can trigger a product recall. Surfaces with microscopic crevices that trap bacteria will be flagged during hygiene audits. Bearing units and bearing housings that cannot survive high-pressure wash-down without letting in water or cleaning chemicals will deteriorate quickly, reducing the overall reliability of the system and pushing up maintenance costs. Getting the component specification right from the outset is the most cost-effective approach, and the one that best protects both production efficiency and food safety.

Stainless steel is the go-to material for most food-contact and food-proximate surfaces in robotic systems used in food manufacturing. It stands up to food acids, cleaning chemicals, and moisture without corroding, does not harbour bacteria the way porous materials can, and meets the surface finish standards that food facilities require.

Depending on the joint configuration and load requirements, robotic arms typically use roller bearings and ball bearings in stainless steel sealed versions, both available in food-grade specifications suited to the demands of food manufacturing environments.

Standard carbon steel bearings corrode quickly in washdown environments, leading to premature failure and the risk of contamination from rust or bearing debris entering the product stream.

The servo motors controlling joint movement and arm motion govern the speed, torque, and positional accuracy of every task the system performs. Any weakness in their protection rating will show up quickly during washdown. The end effector, the gripper or tool mounted at the tip of the arm, must also meet food-safe material requirements since it comes closest to the product itself. Clean external surfaces, food-compliant polymers, sealed cable runs, and easy integration with existing line control systems all contribute to a robotic arm that is highly reliable, straightforward to clean, and built for the demands of food manufacturing.

Robot arms carry out a wide range of material handling tasks in food and beverage facilities. Pick-and-place operations, where a robotic arm selects individual products like pastries or fruits and positions them into trays, cartons, or other formats, are among the most common tasks in food manufacturing. These systems run at high cycle rates across long continuous operations, so bearings and joints must maintain rotational precision and consistent motion throughout. Accuracy and repeatability are non-negotiable: even small amounts of positional drift affect throughput and assembly quality.

Collaborative robots, also known as cobots, are increasingly common on food lines where the work changes frequently or requires more flexibility than fixed automation can offer. Designed to work safely alongside humans without the barriers that traditional industrial robotics requires, they are well suited to assembly tasks across different applications. Because collaborative robots work in closer proximity to people, the hygiene specification of their surfaces and joints receives particularly close scrutiny during audits.
Here at SLS Bearings, we partner with Kassow Robots to supply a range of 7-axis collaborative robot arms developed for industrial use, offering a greater range of motion and improved precision compared to standard 6-axis designs.

Case packing and palletising involve heavier loads and more demanding operating cycles, with bearings and actuators rated for both payload and cumulative fatigue from repetitive movement. Food sorting and inspection lines increasingly integrate artificial intelligence, using AI-powered vision systems and sensors to identify, grade, and divert products at speed. These systems rely on precise arm control and consistent bearing performance to maintain positional accuracy.

IP69K is the benchmark ingress protection rating for food-grade robotic equipment, indicating resistance to the high-pressure, high-temperature water jets used in food facility washdowns. Specifying IP69K-rated motors, sensors, and housings provides a solid baseline, but the rating only holds if washdown procedures are followed correctly. Using chemical cleaners compatible with the materials and seals of the robotic system, at the right concentrations and temperatures, is just as important as the rating itself.

Food-grade lubrication is an operational necessity in food manufacturing environments. Standard industrial greases and oils are not suitable where incidental food contact is possible, and NSF H1 certified lubricants should be specified for every lubrication point on a robotic arm in these settings. Sanitation protocols should be developed with both the equipment supplier and the facility's hygiene team, with particular attention to motion planning for cleaning access. Making sure the robotic arm can be positioned to allow thorough cleaning of all surfaces and joints is a detail that is easy to overlook at installation but becomes a recurring problem if ignored.