OAL fixes manual ingredient weighing

Leading food tech, APRIL Robotics (part of OAL), has launched a revolutionary robotic ingredient handling system to transform weighing operations in food manufacturing facilities. Manual handling and weighing of ingredients cost food & beverage manufacturers up to two per cent of turnover due to onerous labour costs and waste. The patented APRIL Robotics Ingredient Handling system reduces these costs and increases manufacturers’ margins, while at the same time augmenting accuracy and product safety.

The APRIL Robotics Ingredient Handling system is designed to boost manufacturer productivity. The autonomous robotic ingredient handling system offers a real alternative to operators on the factory floor weighing minor ingredients. The system’s cells automatically weigh powders to an accuracy up to +/- 1g at weigh-up rates of up to 1,000kg/hr. It can also deal with a wide weighing range without any mechanical change components, reducing the risk of downtime caused by machine stoppages or breakdown. The cells have a turndown of 1,000 to 1 while maintaining the highest level of accuracy and zero product cross-contamination risk – increasing traceability and improving food safety.

Food & beverage manufacturing facilities often rely on operators to complete arduous weighing tasks in harsh, dusty working environments. This can lead to health problems for the employees, while bakeries are exposed to the cost of employing them and the risk of errors that is inherent in human intervention. Traditional alternatives to labour have included mechanical, screw and auger-based systems, yet they often don’t have the flexibility needed for large-scale facilities working with many different ingredients. What’s more, common transfer lines in pneumatic conveying expose bakers to the risk of cross-contamination, not to mention the number of ingredients that these systems can't handle. What happens when a bakery needs to switch from handling calcium propanoate to seeds?

This is where autonomous robotic ingredient handling comes in. Bringing unprecedented flexibility, bakeries can significantly improve their profitability by fully automating their ingredient handling and storage, minimising human intervention and maximising traceability and accuracy.

The APRIL cells are simple and easy to use. Ingredients are decanted into dedicated APRIL Smart Containers (ASC) and stored in a robotic cell. Whole pallets of ingredients can be decanted and stored, significantly improving the productivity of operators and freeing their time for other activities.

The APRIL cell integrates with ERP systems, so works orders can be automatically imported into the system. Live stock levels are reported back for accurate ingredient tracking, so the robot retrieves and manages the ingredients as required and weighs them out to a recipe. The recipe mixes are then presented at integrated retrieval stations. The APRIL Robotics Ingredient Handling System combines exceptional storage density with very high flexibility. It’s easy to fit into existing bakeries and makes optimal use of the available area.

OAL has a full-sized demo operating at its Peterborough facility where manufacturers can experience the benefits of the system first-hand.

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