When a poultry processing plant evaluates automation equipment, the machine itself is only part of the equation. What keeps that machine running shift after shift — through daily washdowns, high-speed production, and turnover on the floor — comes down to the components inside it and the manufacturer behind those components.
At Fremont Automation, we call this our partnership model. Every major design decision we make on the Saddlepack Taper traces back to a deliberate choice about who we trust to build specific parts of the system. That trust isn’t incidental — it’s engineered into the machine.
What Does “Strategic Partnership” Actually Mean for Equipment Reliability?
A strategic partnership in food processing equipment means your machine was designed around components from suppliers who specialize in solving the same problems you face — washdown, corrosion, mechanical wear, and maintenance burden. The equipment manufacturer doesn’t just pick a part off a catalog; they build an ongoing relationship with a supplier who improves their technology over time.
For processing plant engineers evaluating poultry packaging automation, this distinction matters. A machine built with purpose-selected, field-proven components will behave differently than one assembled from generic parts. Fewer breakdowns. More predictable maintenance. Longer service life.
How Our Partnership With LinMot Improved the Saddlepack Taper
Jacob Benes, Fremont Automation’s lead Engineer, identified early on that traditional servo components created a vulnerability in the Saddlepack Taper’s design: too many moving parts in a wet environment.
His answer was LinMot linear motors.
By replacing conventional servo-driven components with LinMot’s linear motors, we cut 60 moving parts from the machine. That’s not a minor tune-up — that’s a fundamental redesign of the failure risk profile. Fewer parts means fewer components that can wear, corrode, or break under daily production stress.
LinMot motors also carry an IP69k rating, the highest standard for industrial washdown resistance. In poultry processing, where high-pressure spray-downs happen every single shift, IP69k isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the line between a machine that keeps running and one that degrades quietly until something fails.
“LinMot offers innovations in the linear motor space that our customers are looking for. They are leaders in their field, and by incorporating their motors in our machines, it gives us an edge to help deliver more value to our customers.”
— Jacob Benes, Lead Automation Engineer, Fremont Automation
Why Enclosure Quality Determines How Long Your Machine Lasts
The standard lifespan for food processing equipment is 18 to 36 months. We think that’s too short. To extend the life of the Saddlepack Taper beyond that ceiling, we turned to 4XXtreme Custom Stainless Enclosures for the machine’s electrical housing and mounting. Like LinMot, their enclosures meet IP69k standards. But the key is the seal design: it prevents water from reaching the electrical components entirely — not just slowing intrusion, but eliminating it.
“When we wanted to extend the longevity of our Saddlepack Taper, the team at Custom Stainless Enclosures was our first call,”
says Amanda Benes, CEO of Fremont Automation.
What the Results Look Like at a Real Plant
Lincoln Premium Poultry (LPP) — Costco’s dedicated chicken supplier — came to us with a problem several other vendors had already tried and failed to solve: automating the saddlepack taping process on their production lines.
Each line required three employees just to keep up with 16 packages per minute. Across nine lines, that was 27 workers assigned to a single, repetitive process. LPP had written it off as impossible to automate. We disagreed.
After installation, LPP reallocated 18 of those workers to other roles across the production floor. Output climbed from 16 packages per minute to a peak of 20. And the system paid for itself in under a year.
Read the full Lincoln Premium Poultry case study to see how the project came together.
Why This Partnership Model Matters When You’re Evaluating Automation Vendors
If you’re at the point of evaluating automation partners for your poultry packaging line, you’ve already done the research on why automation makes sense. The question now is which partner you can trust to deliver — and stick around after the machine ships.
Here’s what our supplier partnerships mean for you:
- Fewer maintenance calls. With 60 fewer moving parts than a standard servo-driven design, the Saddlepack Taper has fewer failure points to manage. Your maintenance crew spends less time on the machine.
- Longer equipment life. IP69k-rated components combined with watertight enclosures mean daily washdowns don’t degrade the machine. It’s built to outlast the industry average.
- Faster problem resolution. Because the engineers who designed the machine are the same ones who install and support it, troubleshooting is faster. There’s no game of telephone between a sales team and an offshore service department.
- An uptime-first philosophy. We’re not in the spare parts business. Our goal is to sell you a machine that runs — and then make sure it keeps running. Free check-ins, ongoing support, and help with upstream and downstream line issues are part of the relationship.
How We Build the Partner Network That Goes Into Your Machine
Our feedback loop works in a specific sequence. Customers tell us what’s slowing them down. We bring those problems to trusted suppliers who specialize in solving them. Those suppliers develop or refine components that address the issue. We integrate those components and test them in real plant conditions. Then we iterate again with the next installation.
This is how the Saddlepack Taper went from a workable first unit to a machine that Lincoln Premium Poultry ordered nine times over. It’s also why the current design looks different from the first one — better motors, better enclosures, and a built-in HMI screen that puts fault logs, maintenance videos, and runtime metrics directly in front of the operator.
Free Custom Automation Layout & Line Simulation
We’ll map your current setup and show you what it would look like—and perform like—with automation integrated.
- Identify bottlenecks
- Compare labor requirements
- Visualize thermoforming machine integration
- Estimate throughput improvements
Request your custom automation layout and line simulation today
Frequently Asked Questions
When an equipment manufacturer selects components from suppliers who specialize in the same demanding conditions — washdown, corrosion, high-cycle operation — the machine benefits from field-proven technology rather than general-purpose parts. At Fremont Automation, our partnership with LinMot allowed us to replace traditional servo components with IP69k-rated linear motors, removing 60 moving parts from the Saddlepack Taper. Fewer parts means fewer failure points, which translates directly to more uptime for your plant.
IP69k is the highest washdown protection rating for industrial equipment. It means the machine can withstand high-pressure, high-temperature spray without water entering the housing. In poultry processing, where equipment is sanitized every shift, IP69k-rated components are the practical standard — not a premium add-on. Fremont Automation’s Saddlepack Taper uses LinMot linear motors and Custom Stainless Enclosures, both rated to IP69k, so daily sanitation doesn’t shorten the machine’s service life.
Standard food processing equipment averages 18 to 36 months of service life. Fremont Automation’s Saddlepack Taper is built to exceed that. The machine’s electronics are housed in a Custom Stainless Enclosure with a watertight seal that prevents moisture from reaching internal components — the primary cause of premature equipment failure in wet processing environments.
Lincoln Premium Poultry, Costco’s dedicated chicken supplier, installed the Saddlepack Taper across nine production lines. They reallocated 18 workers from manual taping to other roles, increased line throughput from 16 to 20 packages per minute, and achieved a full return on investment in under one year.
About Fremont Automation
Fremont Automation helps poultry processors keep lines moving with packaging automation that’s fast, safe, and maximizes uptime. Our flagship products — the Saddlepack Depositor and Saddlepack Taper — address the most labor-intensive and challenging packaging tasks in chicken processing plants, from pouch loading to saddlepack taping. Designed and built in the U.S.A., our equipment is purpose-built for poultry: washdown-ready, OEM-agnostic, and installed by the same engineers who designed it. Customers include Lincoln Premium Poultry, Pilgrim’s, Perdue, Jennie-O, and Butterball. More about Fremont Automation.
