IDM | Cover page In-feed of ingredients A warm feeling in a cold environment One of the largest ice-cream producers in the world was not able to find a suitable solution to replace the manual in-feed of ingredients into the ice-making machines. Although they had thoroughly investigated potential solutions as the possible efficiency improvements would be significant, they were struggling to find the solution. Being a professional organisation they were keen to prevent people from working in temperatures as low as -30 °C, and finally approached CSi’s dedicated Account Manager to seek help. The Dutch plant was pushing hard to find a solution to improve efficiencies as the future of the site was under threat. In CSi they found a professional partner with the potential to develop and deliver a completely new solution. From the outset both teams worked closely together – and this was necessary as not only did a new installation have to be designed, but changes also had to be made to the bags and to the tape and the total process had to be adjusted. To work through all the project risks the joint project team spent a full day in a remote location to avoid disturbance. To further reduce risks several tests were designed and carried out prior to the order. This really paid off. Starting with an official order in April, hand-over was achieved in November and in February the targeted 99.5% system availability was reached. With input from the customer’s ERP-system pallets with ingredients are transported to the de-palletising area. The gantry robot uses a vision camera to locate and orientate cases one by one. The next step is to automatically open the case. This has to be achieved without polluting the product and a special machine was developed for this function. The opened cases are then transported to one of the three robots. Each equipped with an ingenious gripper which inverts the cases, lifts and places the empty case into the waste conveyor. The next phase is to cut open a bag which is inside the case and empty the contents of the bag into the infeed hopper. The plastic bag is then placed on a waste conveyor. Plastic and cardboard waste is separated at the end of the waste conveyor. The project Executing this project was a real challenge. Not only was this a very complicated project from an engineering standpoint and therefore high-risk, it had to be completed in a relatively short period of time. The location where most of the conveyors and system assemblies had to be installed was in a very confined space with limited access. All of the equipment is located on the first floor on a very thin floor structure. 6 · 4-5 2016 | international-dairy.com I N T E R N A T I O N A L IDM 4-5 April2016 PROCESSING INGREDIENTS PACKAGING IT LOGISTICS www.international-dairy.com a cool head Intheicecreammakingindustrytimeisofessence.Inthishighpressuresituationyouhavetokeep acoolhead.Auniquehandlingsolutiondoesthisdemandingjob. Creatingthefirstfullyautomatic infeedlineforicemakingingredientsintheworld.24/7andalwaysrightontime. One of the largest ice-cream producers in the world now enjoys a solution with automated in-feed of ingredients into the icemaking machines (photo: CSi) An important advantage for the customer was the extra space that resulted on the factory floor with no more transport and storage of ingredients in this area, less fork lifts and no transfer of product from wooden pallets to plastic pallets. The complete system is controlled by CSi to provide a just-intime supply of ingredients to the ice-machine whilst guarantee-
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