Ishida equips pasta manufacturer with weighing machines for flexible handling

26 Jul 2024 --- Ishida’s multihead weighing technology is supporting Swiss pasta manufacturer Pasta Premium with growing sales and a move to paper bags, with three new Ishida weighers for flexibility in the handling of small batches and fast changeovers.

Pasta Premium has introduced paper bags for its Bschüssig pasta brand. This change in packaging, coupled with an increase in demand triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, led to the need for new packaging lines. 

The company selected Ishida’s mid-range multihead weigher, the CCW-RVE, suitable for free-flowing dry products such as short cut pasta, achieving outstanding accuracy at medium to high speeds. 

Many companies are switching to more sustainable forms of packaging, says Inshida. The company says its weighers can handle the latest formats including recyclable film and paper versions.

“We wanted to use Ishida multihead weighers for packing our pasta because we have already had very good experiences with previous Ishida models,” says Simon Hofer, head of technology at Pasta Premium. 

In addition, reliable technical support has always been provided by Ishida’s local distributor, Itech AG in Rotkreuz. As a result, Pasta Premium commissioned Itech to design a packaging solution that included the Ishida weighers.

Pasta Premium‘s paper bags for Bschüssig pasta brand.Fast product transfer 
Two 14-head Ishida CCW-RVE weighers are handling short pasta at target weights from 100 g to 450 g. Speeds are up to 35 bags per minute, which is within the capabilities of the weighers for this type of application, with accuracy to within 1 g.

The pasta is fed through an inlet chute onto the weigher's dispersion table. A load cell regulates the feed quantity, and individually controlled radial feeders convey the product evenly to the pool hoppers. The sift-proof pool and weigh hoppers maintain excellent product control for even very small pieces of pasta. 

It takes a fraction of a second for each weigher's microprocessor to calculate the combination of weigh hoppers that comes closest to the target weight, with advanced automatic feeder adjustment and five-stage digital filtering enabling them to operate with “outstanding” accuracy, according to Inshida. 

The pasta is then discharged directly into the paper bags via discharge chutes that incorporate anti-swirl fins to ensure a fast and accurate product transfer.

The third CCW-RVE model in operation at Pasta Premium is a 14-head GS (Gentle Slope) model, which is used for more delicate pasta such as tagliatelle and pasta nests. 

Developed for the high-performance and gentle weighing of fragile products, the CCW-RVE-GS features shallow angles and reduced drop distances between feeders, hoppers and discharge chute, a gentle slope discharge chute with anti-swirl fins and a ring shutter to prevent product collisions in the discharge chute. 

These features ensure that the delicate pasta transitions smoothly through the weigher and that product breakage is reduced to an absolute minimum. 

The GS model runs at up to 28 weighments per minute, again with an excellent weighing accuracy of 1 g per bag.

Flexibility advantage 
The three pasta lines are currently used in a two-shift operation. “All three Ishida weighers are proving to be highly reliable with only a minimum of maintenance required,” says Hofer. 

The flexibility of the weighers is another advantage. “Our company specializes in small batch sizes, which means we have to make a lot of things possible in a very short time.”

The three Ishida weighers facilitate this, allowing fast and frequent changeovers between more than 100 products by simply calling up the correct preset on their touch screens. The weighers are also easy to operate, and the cleaning process takes little time.

The team at Pasta Premium is very satisfied with the investment in Ishida weighing technology. 

“The multihead weighers help us to produce and pack small batch sizes efficiently and to secure a niche in the highly competitive pasta market,” says Hofer. 

“The reliability and durability of the weighers and the long-term availability of spare parts also fit in with our sustainable corporate culture.”