Food Manufacturing

Eldon stainless steel enclosures specified for dairy equipment

Eldon has been selected by C. van 't Riet as its supplier of stainless steel enclosures for dairy equipment.

18th June 2013

Lenze drive automation for Cornish brewery

A new and modern beer racking plant worth £2.5m supplied by brewery design specialist Microdat has increased capacity at the St. Austell brewery to 300 firkins, that is 9 gallon casks, per hour. The increased efficiency allows the brewery to switch from two-shift to one-shift operation and still have two times the capacity. Throughout the plant Microdat have used drives and automation equipment from Lenze ranging from controllers to efficient geared motors. The networking of the system is the key to the efficient operation of the plant.

25th May 2013

Oil-free compressors help boost snack food output capacity

When Kolak Snack Foods Ltd experienced a business upturn and required increased output capacity at its manufacturing plant in London, it decided to upgrade its production equipment, including its compressors. Kolak chose new oil-free air compressors from Atlas Copco due to their reliability and ability to provide a guaranteed supply of high-quality, oil-free air.

9th May 2013

IVAC cylinders reduce build time and downtime

Innovative IVAC pneumatic cylinders from Norgren are bringing substantial operational and commercial benefits to a major manufacturer of surface finishing equipment and its customers.

19th April 2013

Mitsubishi Electric brings automation to baking technology

Mitsubishi Electric offers a wide range of automation products and services for the baking industry ranging from the automation of simple inverter-controlled dough mixing applications that can improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) by means of a patented algorithm, to robot technology for increasing production. Production, energy and quality data can be communicated continuously without any problems using the MES-IT interface module. In order to do this, production data and test results are recorded during each stage of production, from individual processes to whole production operations, and transferred in real time directly to higher-level systems.

10th April 2013

Precision load cells increase output in China

Chinese manufacturers are increasingly utilising HBM's FIT/5 digital load cells within integrated digital weighing technology as they consistently upgrade to improve competitiveness.

4th April 2013

Linear transmission and positioning system for flipping

Anyone who has tried flipping a pancake to cook the reverse side knows it takes a degree of skill - and it is no different in automated mass production. Indeed it is a process that continues to confound many bakery machine manufactures but not Sugden Limited in Nelson, Lancashire. They have developed a system that will flip pancakes with a high degree of efficiency, accuracy and repeatability and the HepcoMotion DLS (Driven Linear System) is a key component in this success.

30th January 2013

Movicon SCADA used on product lines for confectionery producer

Products4Automation is highlighting the ability of its Windows-based SCADA package to increase production, improve product quality and reduce product development times in the food industry. By integrating Movicon into its "˜Baci' chocolate production line, Nestle in Perugina is now able to plan and optimise production batches, analyse product output with report printouts, historically log the roasting result for each batch of hazelnuts, and deploy the widest range of commands for running the plant in either automatic or manual mode.

30th January 2013

Static electricity - an invisible but costly problem

Static electricity is one of those invisible problems that often goes undiagnosed and causes manufacturers costly headaches in terms of lost production and product rejects. And it is an issue that will only get worse as winter sets in and temperatures continue to plummet. Because cold air holds less water vapour, it means it is less conductive therefore encouraging static electrical conditions.

22nd January 2013

Pneumatic cylinder for keg cleaning and filling saves energy

In the food and beverage sector, hygiene is a key pre-requisite for safe, legal production. Not only must production areas and surfaces be subjected to a rigid and carefully managed cleaning regime, but the containers used to store and dispense products must be effectively cleaned to ensure the contents retain their quality and taste and are not harbouring dangerous bacteria.

11th January 2013

Applications