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It’s time to fix manual ingredient weighing

Posted: 18 September 2018 | | No comments yet

Did you know manual handling and weighing of ingredients costs bakeries up to 1% of turnover? Traditional mechanical handling and pneumatic conveying solutions fail to deliver the flexibility food companies require. Consequently, we rely on people to complete arduous weighing tasks in harsh, dusty working environments. Fortunately, the robots are here…

April Robotics feature image

APRIL Robotics, part of OAL, is a food tech specialist based in Peterborough. Recently, they’ve developed a range of patented robotic ingredient handling systems. The APRIL cells can automatically weigh powders to an accuracy up to +/- 1g at weigh-up rates up to 1,000kg/hr. A key advantage of the system is its ability to deal with a wide weighing range without any mechanical change components. The cell has a turndown of 1,000 to 1 while maintaining accuracy and zero product cross-contamination risk.

For an €80 million turnover high-volume bakery, the handling and preparation of ingredients typically costs €800,000 per annum. It’s a big prize for automation, but if you consider baking at home, this high number isn’t surprising. The most tedious and time-consuming part of baking is weighing and preparing the small ingredients. We all know what happens when you forget to add the sugar!

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