---
title: 9 Design Tips for Automating Temperature-Controlled Food Production
description: AMT shares tips gleaned from decades of experience in creating robust robotic material handling palletizing and depalletizing solutions.
---

[AMT Blog](https://blog.appliedmfg.com/blog)

# [9 Design Tips for Automating Temperature-Controlled Food Production](https://blog.appliedmfg.com/blog/design-considerations-food-plants)

 Written by [AMT](https://blog.appliedmfg.com/blog/author/amt) | Apr 12, 2021 6:59:43 PM

*With more than three decades of successful automation projects under our belt, we are sharing nine key considerations for designing and installing automation in the cold environments of food processing plants, such as for the meat, meat substitute, seafood, dairy, and fresh pet food industries.*

There are many challenges to designing and installing automation in temperature-controlled environments. Temperature-controlled environments refrigerate and/or freeze perishables during production, packaging, storage and shipping. The process design, equipment, and installation provide unique challenges. Low temperatures and washdown or food-grade ratings impact nearly every part of the automation design.

## Key Design Considerations

1. “Washdown” vs. “Food-Grade”
2. Cleaning Process Considerations
3. Wiring and Cable Connector Considerations
4. Impacts on Mechanical Design – Pneumatics and Robotics
5. Material Handling Challenges with Product Variations
6. Better Pallets Equal Fewer Problems
7. Product Challenges with Factory and Site Acceptance Tests
8. Equipment Needs Versus Wants
9. Installation Challenges

Click below to download *Nine Key Considerations When Automating Upstream and Downstream Processes in Temperature-Controlled Food Production Plants*, and [give us a call](https://appliedmfg.com/contact-us) to see how we can help you achieve your business goals through automation.

[View full post](https://blog.appliedmfg.com/blog/design-considerations-food-plants)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "AMT"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2024-07-10T16:28:54.254Z",
  "datePublished" : "2021-04-12T18:59:43Z",
  "headline" : "9 Design Tips for Automating Temperature-Controlled Food Production",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 676,
    "url" : "https://info.appliedmfg.com/hubfs/AMT%209%20Design%20Tips%20for%20Automating%20Temperature-Controlled%20Food%20Production.png",
    "width" : 1000
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://blog.appliedmfg.com/blog/design-considerations-food-plants",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60,
      "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
      "width" : 60
    },
    "name" : "AMT Blog"
  }
}
```