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Top Considerations for Customizing Food Conveyor Systems
Your food conveyor system sits at the heart of your food processing operation, seamlessly connecting the different parts of your process and efficiently moving product between them while maintaining hygiene and protecting product integrity. It’s a critical part of your production.
Why take a chance, then, on standardized, off-the-shelf conveyor equipment that’s not built with your precise needs and operational goals in mind? At best, you’ll end up with sub-par connectivity and less efficient material flows. At worst, you risk damaging expensive equipment or compromising the quality and safety of your product.
If you’re serious about producing high-quality food at scale, then investing in fully customized conveying equipment from a reputable, specialized provider is essential.
This guide explains how to customize food conveyor systems by outlining the key factors that influence design and decision-making.
These considerations include:
- Industry requirements
- Application requirements
- Product characteristics
- Throughput demands
- Environmental considerations
Each of these factors plays a role in shaping an effective conveyor customization strategy.
1. INDUSTRY REQUIREMENTS
Customized conveyor design begins with a clear understanding of the regulatory requirements your equipment must meet, or ideally, exceed. These include sanitation and cleanability standards, as well as safety and ergonomics..
SANITATION AND CLEANABILITY
Specific requirements vary by segment, but include regulations from the USDA, GMA, BEMA, and FSMA. The most stringent regulations apply to processes involving raw meat, dairy products, and ready-to-eat products. These standards are especially important for ready-to-eat (RTE) foods, which do not undergo further cooking or processing before consumption. As a result, sanitary conveyor systems used in RTE environments must meet the highest hygiene and design standards to prevent contamination.
As the leading manufacturer of food-handling conveyors, PFI equipment meets and exceeds all applicable regulations. We prioritize food safety in all design decisions.
All our equipment features:
- Open-frame, modular design for faster, easier cleaning
- Sloped surfaces to prevent liquid buildup
- Smooth welds and minimal joints to prevent bacteria buildup
- Removable, fully washable, food-grade plastic belts
- Toolless belt removal to prevent bacteria-harboring scratches
- Stainless steel (304 or 316) construction
Depending on the application, PFI will also often recommend:
- Clean in Place (CIP) systems and belt scrapers for belt conveyors in certain applications like dough/bakery
- Vibratory and horizontal motion conveyors, where applicable, for their washdown pans and ease of cleaning
SAFETY AND ERGONOMICS
The health and safety of your staff are essential.All equipment should meet the relevant OSHA regulations governing safe and ergonomic design.
Here, PFI’s open-frame designs with minimal maintenance reduce strain and limit the possibility of injury to your personnel. Depending on the system, our equipment is also built to include:
- Additional guarding around moving parts
- Emergency stop mechanisms
- Non-slip catwalks to access our machinery
For PFI, food safety and hygiene are more than just a box to check. They’re at the forefront of our design process.
2. APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
Every conveyor system should be built to meet the specific physical and functional demands of your application, from integration and scalability to material handling.
FOOTPRINT
Your production line needs to fit into the available plant space and work around obstacles that cannot be moved. That can mean long conveyor runs, tight turns, or moving product vertically between levels. You’re unlikely to find an off-the-shelf conveyor system that meets all your needs.
PFI offers curved belt conveyors and elevating/vertical solutions to accommodate any floor plan. Talk to us about your specific challenges early in a project to avoid bottlenecks and poor integrations.
INTEGRATION
Your conveyors need to integrate seamlessly with infeeds and outfeeds for all the otherequipment on your lineto ensure precise timing, spacing, placement, and alignment of products, and to prevent jams, bottlenecks, or spillage. We consider a variety of factors, including:
- Equipment dimensions: height, width, discharge points
- Production specs: volume, rate, application
- Zone: product considerations and make-up, requirements
Food processors are also rapidly adopting increasingly automated systems. Conveyors play a central role in feeding and taking away products from automatic processing equipment and robotic systems.
PFI designs conveyors to integrate directly into automated lines, with support for PLC-controlled coordination and line-wide communication. We can even build conveyors directly into automated systems at the design stage.
FLEXIBILITY
In today’s fast-moving food industry, processing lines must adapt quickly to recipe or product changes to keep up with shifting market demands, without requiring a major overhaul. If you anticipate changing product types or packaging formats, your conveyor can be built to accommodate this with quick-change belts, adjustable guides, and versatile frame designs.
SCALABILITY
Working closely with an experienced partner to plan your conveyor solution allows you to plan for increased production by building additional throughput capacity. For example, you may wish to install wider conveyor belts or faster-running conveyor systems than you currently need.
MATERIAL HANDLING
Conveyors do more than move materials from A to B—they may also need to accumulate, separate, or reorient items in transit. At PFI, conveyors are seen not just as equipment for transferring product between processing stages, but as a value-added part of the production process itself.
Depending on your operation’s needs, we can build equipment that manipulates foodstuffs in motion, eliminating the need for additional machines. These processing-in-motion customizations include:
- Repositioning and aligning product
- Screening, spreading, grading, and laning loose granular foods
- Dewatering or shaking washed, dipped, or fried foods
- Adding toppings or coatings
Unlike standardized handling solutions, fully customized conveyors can incorporate diverting gates, servo-driven transfers, and other features to add, separate, or sort your product as needed.
3. PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS
The physical properties of your product directly influence the design of your conveyors, limiting the usefulness of off-the-shelf models. Instead, belt type, frame material, and layout must all be carefully selected to maintain product quality and processing efficiency.
SIZE, SHAPE, AND FRAGILITY
Products that are irregular, lightweight, or delicate, like pastries or cut fruit, require gentle handling. Powders, grains, or mixed items like cereal, snacks, or pasta must be moved without crushing or separation. Sticky products such as doughs need non-stick surfaces and scrapers for smooth transfer.
Not sure which solution fits your product? PFI handles all types of food with specialized conveyor systems designed for your unique needs. We’ll help you decide what belt, bucket, horizontal motion, and vibratory design conveyors are best for your product and customize them to meet your specific application.
MOISTURE, OIL, OR SUGAR CONTENT
Sticky, wet, or oily products can cause buildup, slippage, or contamination if a conveyor isn’t properly specified for its task. PFI offers drip pans, food-safe belting materials, and sanitary finishes that resist sticking and are easy to clean.
Our vibratory conveyors are particularly well-suited for handling washed, dipped, or oily foods, allowing them to be dewatered or drained in transit.
4. THROUGHPUT DEMANDS
Throughput is one of the most important design variables in food processing. Your conveyor system must move the right amount of product at the right speed without compromising safety, efficiency, or product integrity.
VOLUME AND SPEED OPTIMIZATION
Throughput is determined by the combination of your conveyor’s volume (its width) and the speed at which your conveyor can work with other equipment on the line. Every conveyor has to balance maximum line speed with its carrying capacity to support safe, economic, and sustainable operations.
Any plant manager wants to increase throughput, but relying on a standard, off-the-shelf conveyor can limit options and cause excessive wear if not used as intended. This often leads to costly downtime for repairs or premature equipment replacement.
At PFI, we build balanced conveyors tailored to your specific volume, speed, conveyor width, product specs, and production goals. We collaborate with you to determine peak performance requirements and deliver a solution that operates efficiently at maximum capacity.
MANAGING LINE SPEED
Throughput is ultimately limited by the handling speed of upstream and downstream equipment. Your conveyor is the most flexible part of the process and should compensate for uneven or changing production rates between line components.
Many of our conveyors feature advanced variable frequency drives, allowing you to adjust line speed in real time. With flexible vibratory and horizontal motion conveyors, we design lines that can “absorb” faster production, so you don’t have to stop the entire line if there’s a slowdown downstream.
PRODUCT YIELD
Balanced production means your line is optimized to handle your product’s specific characteristics at peak speed, minimizing spills and product damage. This boosts efficiency, reduces downtime for cleanups, and helps maintain product quality and integrity.
COST EFFICIENCIES AND RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Running your line safely at higher speeds increases efficiency across your operation. When that performance is sustained, it leads to a stronger return on investment. While customized conveyors may cost more upfront than off-the-shelf options, their ability to deliver higher throughput with less waste and downtime pays off in the long run.
5. ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
The conditions surrounding your conveyor are a key factor in the customization process. At PFI, we understand that conveyors often operate in less-than-ideal environments, and we engineer them to perform reliably despite those challenges.
TEMPERATURE EXTREMES
Chilled and frozen food facilities require equipment that can withstand cold environments without warping, seizing, or failing. On the other hand, bakeries and cooked food operations can expose conveyors to high heat and grease. PFI selects materials, finishes, and components that resist temperature-related wear and maintain performance over time.
HUMIDITY AND WASHDOWN CONDITIONS
Frequent washdowns demand corrosion-resistant materials and hygienic design. Our stainless steel components and tough food-safe belting are built to stand up to moisture, caustic cleaners, and high-pressure rinsing without degrading.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
With energy costs on the rise, efficiency matters more than ever. Our conveyor systems use energy-efficient drives that minimize power consumption without compromising performance. Designing your line layout from the ground up also improves overall efficiency, reducing total cost of ownership and supporting your sustainability goals.
TAILORED CONVEYORS FOR LONG-TERM PERFORMANCE
PFI Conveyors has more than 60 years’ experience designing, configuring, manufacturing, and supporting high-quality conveying equipment with our customers’ best interests at heart. Today, we remain the leading manufacturer of food-grade sanitary conveyor systems, trusted by some of the world’s biggest food brands.
At PFI, we believe there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the complexities of any food-handling challenge. That’s why all of our equipment is fully customized by our expert designers, engineers, and fabricators. We believe in delivering and supporting conveying systems that make it easier for you to achieve your production goals.
Our customized, long-lasting solutions ensure you don’t have to adjust your operations to fit our systems. Instead, we start with proven standard designs and adapt them to meet the demands of your application, footprint, production goals, and long-term vision.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help you solve your food conveying challenges with expertly tailored solutions, or click below to learn more about our range of sanitary food conveyors.
