Automated cheese batching achieves costs reduction

Scanvaegt claims that a major Dutch dairy has been able to reduce the average giveaway on its foiled cheese batching operations to as little as 1g per 10 kg batch through the installation of automated cheese batching equipment.

Scanvaegt claims that a major Dutch dairy has been able to reduce the average giveaway on its foiled cheese batching operations to as little as 1g per 10 kg batch through the installation of automated cheese batching equipment. Labour costs have also been cut concurrently with the automation of the company’s six batching and packing lines. The cheese blocks are transported to a high-precision weighing unit, automatically weighed and moved to the separator unit. The requested item arrives in a special chute so that the operator can fill up the box with a cheese block of the right weight to meet the specifications. The batch is completed with an absolute minimum of time, effort and giveaway. This CheeseBatcher reworking-station keeps rejected items/boxes within the line and thereby optimises the production flow with absolutely no giveaway. Scanvaegt claims that the system can make a big difference to profit margins, which have been tight within the dairy industry. The system is designed to solve a number of tasks in a fast integrated flow, such as automating the weighing of cheese along with automating grading after size or type. The batching of pieces into fixed-weight boxes means that damaged cheese or cheese with missing labels can be removed. Automated checkweighing, the rejection of underweight boxes e.g. if a cheese has been removed and automated labelling can all be done at high speeds, providing a capacity of up to 200 items/minute per line.