Yes. Most reputable robotic packaging suppliers will test your product before you commit to a design, and you should ask for it. At JLS Automation, that testing happens in the Flight Lab in York, Pennsylvania: you send product samples, JLS application engineers configure tooling for them, and you see how the pick and place actually behaves on your product — before the system design is finalized and long before a purchase order is signed.
The reason this matters is simple. Food is not a uniform widget. Two chicken breasts from the same line differ in size, shape, moisture and surface tack. A dough ball at 40°F behaves differently than the same dough ball at 55°F. Bacon slices shingle differently depending on fat content. No spec sheet resolves those questions. Running the product does.
Application testing is a feasibility exercise. The goal is to answer one question with evidence rather than opinion: can this product be picked and placed reliably, and with what tooling?
A typical test looks at the end-of-arm tooling design, the pick method (vacuum, mechanical gripper, or a combination), how the product presents on the infeed, and placement quality into the target pack format. Where the product suits it, the test is run on real JLS robotics with tooling configured for that application.
At JLS, the engineers who run the test are the same engineers who design and build the system. What is learned in the lab carries directly into the machine design instead of being handed across a gap between companies.
This is where buyers are most often misled, so it is worth being direct about it.
A pre-sale test is not a production-rate simulation. A lab cell does not replicate your upstream equipment, your product supply variability across a full shift, your plant's temperature and humidity, or how your line accumulates. Sustained rate is proven later, at factory acceptance testing (FAT), on your actual system before it ships.
A feasibility test also does not usually demonstrate changeover. Showing a changeover properly requires multiple SKUs and multiple tooling configurations, which is a different exercise from proving the pick.
If a supplier tells you a pre-sale demo will show you your production rate, ask them how. The honest answer is that it shows the pick is achievable, and the rate gets proven on the real machine.
Ideally, yes — your actual SKU, in the condition it will arrive at the robot. In practice that is not always possible. Frozen product can arrive tempered, short-shelf-life product may not survive shipping, and some formats simply cannot be sent. In those cases a close proxy can still establish feasibility, with the remaining variables flagged and engineered for.
What matters is that both sides are honest about which conditions were replicated and which were not.
These two get conflated constantly, and they answer different questions at different points in a project.
A supplier who offers one but not the other is asking you to take on risk somewhere. Ask for both.
Bring the product and the package. Send samples representative of your real production range, not just the best-looking ones — including the edge cases that worry you. Provide your pack format, target pattern, and the upstream and downstream equipment the cell has to sit between.
Then ask for results in a form you can share internally. Video of the test is often the most useful output, since it travels to the people who weren't in the room. Visiting in person may be an option depending on the project and schedule.
One caveat worth stating plainly: Flight Lab testing is at JLS's discretion and subject to availability, and not every product or format is suitable for robotic handling or for lab testing. A supplier telling you in advance that your application may not be a fit is giving you useful information, not a brush-off.
Yes. JLS runs pre-sale application testing in its Flight Lab in York, Pennsylvania, using your product samples and tooling configured for the application, before the system design is finalized.
No. Pre-sale testing establishes whether the pick and place is feasible and which tooling suits your product. Sustained rate is proven at factory acceptance testing on your actual system before it ships.
A close proxy can often establish feasibility. The conditions that could not be replicated — temperature, surface condition, age — are identified and engineered for in the design.
Testing takes place during the pre-sale process, before a purchase order. Eligibility depends on the product and format and is subject to lab availability, so the place to start is a conversation about your application.
JLS Automation designs, builds and programs hygienic robotic food handling and packaging systems in York, Pennsylvania. Learn more about the JLS Flight Lab, robotic primary product handling, or talk to an application engineer.