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FOOD & BEVERAGE A PERFECT CODING BLEND FOR COFFEE ROASTER
A coding upgrade project by Clearmark Solutions has enabled coffee roasters Lincoln & York to increase production efficiency by up to 25% at the company’s headquarters
Lincoln & York can now rapidly create and edit labels, enabling them to reduce changeover time between batches and cut waste caused by human error. As one of the UK’s largest coffee roasting
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companies, Lincoln & York sources, roasts and packs coffee for companies in the out-of-home, distributor and specialist retail markets across the UK and Europe. Each day, the company roasts enough coffee at its roastery in Brigg, North Lincolnshire to make 1,500,000 cups. After experiencing rapid growth, Lincoln & York sought to replace its ageing coding equipment
y replacing legacy coding equipment across 12 lines with ICE Zodiac thermal transfer overprinters from Clearmark,
with a more reliable and flexible solution in a bid to increase uptime and deliver higher quality prints. It contacted Clearmark Solutions, who assessed the existing coding infrastructure and ascertained that the company would benefit from more modern coding equipment and upgraded software to enable it to create and edit labels more quickly and efficiently. As Lincoln & York work
REDUCING ERRORS WITH MACHINE VISION
technologies using machine vision. This is concerning, particularly for food and beverage manufacturers that rely on their products meeting strict standards. Adam Carless, TwinCAT Vision product specialist for Beckhoff Automation UK, explores how machine vision can improve the inspection process in food manufacturing and what to consider when choosing a machine vision solution. 85 per cent of production errors, recalls, and machine downtime in food and beverage
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manufacturing are caused by human error. While a lot of the time, food recalls relate to the product itself, faulty packaging can play a part. Broken packaging could lead to food contamination or increased oxidisation of fruit and vegetables, cause them to rot prematurely. To help prevent this from happening, machine vision systems can be used to check each
product against what the system’s artificial intelligence engines have deemed correct. Machine learning solutions can also be used to identify and remove defective products before
they leave the facility. By learning the dimensions, weight and look of what a perfect product looks like, the system can then distinguish between that and imperfect products. When integrated with other machines, the system can remove the defective products from the line. Its important to choose a machine vision solution that integrates with the existing technology
used on the production line, for example the programming language. TwinCAT Vision, offered by Beckhoff Automation UK, is an extension of Beckhoff’s TwinCAT 3 software. The open automation principles means that engineers can continue to use the programming language and software environment they are familiar with. The ability to bring all systems under one programming language and software environment
allows for the easy synchronisation between systems, which results in a reduction in latency. The TwinCAT Vision system can be easily configured which means that it can be brought under
the same control environment as robotics and motion applications. Beckhoff Automation
www.beckhoff.co.uk
ccording to a recent survey, only 1.7 per cent of businesses are using machine vision, and a further 0.4 per cent are testing specific advanced
with a range of suppliers and retailers, Clearmark recommended the flexible ICE thermal transfer technology combined with CLARiSOFT label design software. The project saw Clearmark replace all
existing coding equipment across 12 of Lincoln & York’s lines with ICE Zodiac thermal transfer printers. This allows codes to be printed more efficiently across a range of flexible substrates, in a variety of colours, at the various throughputs required. Flexible enough to print dates in any format or size, and in any Windows TrueType font, their superior ribbon capacity means less downtime for ribbon changeovers, reducing waste and increasing production efficiency by up to 25%. In addition, the CLARiSOFT software allows operators to quickly create and edit label designs for a growing range of customers. Its built-in label error prevention feature provides added assurance, further helping to cut waste. Each ICE machine comprises an intuitive
error-proof touchscreen, so operator training is straightforward. Clearmark also delivered one-to-one ICE product training to two Lincoln & York operators.. To future-proof against further changes
to the business, the solution has been designed with flexibility in mind, enabling Lincoln & York to meet current and future customer demand without any risk to reliability or print quality. “It is essential that we are able to change
our label designs as quickly as possible to meet growing supplier requirements. The ICE Zodiacs allow us to do this efficiently without having any impact on production,” said Marc Rockall, Engineering Manager at Lincoln & York.
Clearmark Solutions
www.clearmark.uk
MAY 2022 | PROCESS & CONTROL 31
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