Food Manufacturing

Fieldbus modules connect 120 drives in pallet conveyor system

When a customer in the food and beverage industry approached PCA about a conveyor system passing through a 90m-long cooling tunnel, the company's engineers were confident that Murrelektronik's specialists could design a tailor-made system using the best in automation technology.

23rd January 2014

Drive and attachment chains for packaging manufacturers

Technological innovation is currently seen as a major driving force towards achieving improved efficiency, and therefore improved overall performance, in the packaging industry. The manufacture of tubes, cans, bottles etc. is a huge sector; as is the business of filling them. There are many companies involved in this side of the packaging industry and many potential products, from aerosols and pharmaceuticals to food and beverage, but one thing is for sure, they can all benefit from improved reliability in their production lines.

22nd January 2014

Embedded servo drive boosts speed of smart friction feeders

An embedded servo drive from Metronix is providing an economic upgrade path for Pfankuch Machinery - a manufacturer of friction feeder systems for inserting leaflets and products into sales packaging.

15th January 2014

Thomson delivers smooth, backlash-free "horsepower"

Thomson ball screw and linear rail bearing assemblies support heavy loads while delivering accurate equine patient positioning for fast and accurate CT scans.

14th January 2014

Fruit syrup production benefits from smart valve control

A fruit syrup manufacturer in France, Teisseire, has retained traditional core values, producing concentrated fruit syrups and drinks since the 1920s. The main production plant in Crolles, built in 1971 has recently seen a major investment in new process equipment, thanks in part to Britvic that acquired the company in 2010. This project required Bürkert Fluid Control Systems to deploy the Bürkert 8681 control head to aid process performance as well as integration.

16th December 2013

Partnership set to launch cooker and control system

Siemens Industry and Olympus Automation have partnered to deliver a system that reduces production time and enhances the quality of soups, sauces and ready meals to the global food and beverage market.

26th November 2013

Mitsubishi Electric causes a stir in white sauce production

British process and automation expertise has a Japanese food producer to cut white sauce production time by 83 per cent, reduce cleaning between batches because there is no burn-on residue and minimise energy consumption. PDX Reactor technology was integrated with a Mitsubishi Electric FX3 series compact PLC to create a 1200kg plant that produces the sauce in a single-stage process.

8th November 2013

Industrial mixers require flexible, reliable couplings

As a global market leader in the manufacture of standard and custom fluid agitation equipment, Chemineer has some 60 years' experience in the design and manufacture of rotating mixers. The company is continually striving to improve reliability and performance which is why it has chosen to specify Sure-Flex couplings from TB Wood's, part of the Altra Industrial Motion Group, for its most recent mixers.

1st November 2013

Vision system reduces keg-filling line stoppages

A vision system developed by Olmec UK is being used to check that the correct beer kegs are present in the correct orientation on the filling lines at Molson Coors brewery. The vision system inspects the special filling tube in top of the keg, known as the spear, to determine whether the keg can proceed for sterilisation and filling. Around 2.5 per cent line stoppages are directly attributable to attempting to fill the wrong keg types, since trying to fit a particular filling head to the wrong spear can cause significant damage. The introduction of the vision system has reduced this figure to 0.5 per cent.

24th October 2013

The energy-saving, eco-efficient VSD+ compressor

In September 2012 Atlas Copco Compressors invited long-term customer Di-Spark Group to trial the operation of its energy and space-saving vertical aspect GA15VSD+ rotary screw compressor, which is powered by the company's own in-house designed interior permanent magnet (iPM) motor. The compressor's performance and the impressive energy savings gained to date, plus the unit's minimal footprint, persuaded Di-Spark to install the compressor as a permanent addition to the air supply plant at its two sites in Horndean, East Hampshire.

23rd October 2013

Applications