Food Manufacturing

QUASAR's decorating system is the icing on the cake

Automation within the food industry is commonplace and there are many examples of special purpose machines and robot systems performing a diverse range of processing, handling and packaging operations. However, using robots to write messages and greetings on to the surface of cakes has been an area where the natural variation in the product has, to date, made it all but impossible to achieve consistent results.

19th August 2013

Robots take the load for cooperage

Automation technology is proving it can mix effectively and unobtrusively with the heritage craft of barrel manufacturing at Speyside Cooperage in Alloa. Two Kawasaki robots and a purpose-designed lathe are being used in the refurbishment process of traditionally built oak barrels.

9th August 2013

Flexicon flexible conduit protects British maritime heritage

Flexicon has supplied 150m of flexible conduit to protect critical power and data cables during the restoration of a Brixham sailing trawler, which first entered service in 1895.

2nd August 2013

Infrared welding seals repeat business for Altec

As a manufacturer of special purpose machines, Altec Engineering is constantly presented with new challenges that require innovative ideas and the selection of the most appropriate technologies to deliver the optimum production option. When asked to develop a flexible, precision joining system for a range of plastic filter components, Altec selected Infra Red Welding as the preferred joining technology based upon its attributes of speed, energy efficiency and non-contact operation.

16th July 2013

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

Applications