Food Processing Awards 2022 – the finalists

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The awards will be presented at a ceremony being held on the evening of the Appetite for Engineering 2022 event – 13th October. As in previous years, the judging panel has chosen four finalists for each of the categories.  We now pass the baton to you to vote for your favourites by simply emailing Suzanne.gill@imlgroup.co.uk with AWARDS as a subject line – then list the categories and your winners! Voting closes on 16th September.

Habasit – Super HyCLEAN is a novel concept for hygienic plastic modular belt design to support food safety especially in fish, meat and poultry processing. The belt’s unique construction eliminates areas where debris from protein processing could be trapped, potentially forming a breeding ground for bacteria and biofilm. The solution also demonstrates a significant improvement in cleanability.

Unison Process Solutions – HEIST is an automatic integrity testing system for heat exchangers which allows liquid processing companies to undertake their own integrity tests, helping ensure product quality, reduce downtimes and increase productivity.  

Kemtile – Following recommendations from other food manufacturing companies, Tofu King chose Kemtile to provide flooring in its new facility. During the two-month project, Kemtile installed co-polymer screed to the desired drainage ‘falls’ which was overlaid with Stonclad UF – a trowel applied, high-performance polyurethane floor screed. Stonclad UF is hard-wearing and slip resistant and its dense impervious surface makes it hygienic and easy to clean. 

Hygiena – The EnSure Touch environmental monitoring programme helps minimise food safety risks. It collects, analyses and reports data from various trusted quality test devices and provides rapid and accurate sanitation verification data. 

Bakkavor  – The organisation announced  its aim to reaching Net Zero by 2040 after agreeing an asset finance deal with HSBC UK. The funding will be used  to overhaul its network of refrigeration systems – starting with plant replacements at its Sutton Bridge and Boston sites in Lincolnshire and Bo’ness site in West Lothian. The move forms part of a wider plan to transform its entire UK network of refrigeration systems to unlock energy savings and support a significant reduction of CO2 emissions.

Holmach – Has worked with French company, Revtech to develop a heat treatment solution for the processing of materials that are used as moisture retainers for the seedlings grown in vertical farms. This solution sees the chosen growing media being indirectly pre-heated in a controlled environment. Condensation is carefully controlled to ensure there is no regrowth of micro-organisms.

Elis UK – This workwear provider offers bespoke solutions, using a circular economy model to provide its customers with a more sustainable solution. It provides workwear on a rental basis, collecting used items and delivering laundered garments on an agreed schedule to meet the needs of each customer.

Princes Group – Food waste data for its global operations reported that just 1.6% of total food handled by the business was wasted in the year to March 2021. Globally, Princes has reduced overall food waste by 12.84% since last year, and 4% across the Group’s UK sites. Princes has adopted the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3. By 2030, it pledges to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses. The organisation is also committed to maintaining zero to landfill waste across its UK operations.

Turck Banner - The Production Performance Monitoring kit (PPM) is, essentially, an OEE starter kit.  Comprising a wireless, battery powered sensor, a controller and a 3-month free-of-charge cloud connection the solution has been designed with first-time users in mind.

The sensor is simply mounted on the machinery to be monitored and data logging is provided by the controller and the cloud is used for dashboard display and analysis.

SolutionsPT – The company worked with Princes Group to help it achieve a complete overhaul of a previously manual process into an automated, digital environment. The project utilised the AVEVA SCADA software platform to combine both archived historical data and real-time process data, this solution makes maintenance more efficient. In addition, AVEVA MES and Historian solutions are being used to digitally maintain order effectiveness and quality within plant operations.

Minebea Intec – The Dymond DSV x-ray inspection systems offers multi-sided radioscopy of products – with just a single X-ray source. An image of the product is captured both when it enters and exits the radiation cone. The X-ray inspection system can detect foreign objects measuring up to 1mm. The Dymond DSV offer the precision and accuracy of two X-ray beams, but with the maintenance commitment of a simple, single-beam solution.

EUCHNER – the PUWER for Food & Beverage Industry training course one-day courses cover the content and application of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and explain how this legislation applies to manufacturers or processors in the food and beverage industry, helping to ensure improvement of safety in the workplace and a good understanding of legislative requirements.

Fortress – The Halo digital testing solution helps eliminate human error when it comes to product inspection. It enables factory operatives to pre-program ferrous, non-ferrous and stainless-steel sample tests, activate remotely or select from the HMI. It is able to instantly log real-time GFSI audit and QC results.

BUSCH – Otto digital services help food and beverage manufacturers to reduce their production downtime and removes vacuum pump maintenance from their workload.

SICK – The SensorApp for Colour Inspection and Sorting  provides a simple solution for common inline quality control tasks in automated food and beverage production and packaging. It can be used to check that goods on a conveyor are the right size or colour. It can count objects of different sizes and colours as well as validate the correct colour or colour gradations. Objects with anomalies can be identified for rejection and the integrity and completeness of secondary packaging can be confirmed. 

Festo – The Festo Automation Experience (AX) predictive maintenance solution uses AI and machine machine learning technologies enabling users to make decisions based on information and not just data, through the use of easy-to-use software that extracts value from data. 

Shemesh Automation – The TKS-G60 bottling line was created for confectionery producers who manufacture awkward to handle sticky gum and jelly products. It can load, fill, cap and label bottles of all sizes at speeds of up to 60 products per minute. 

Verder – A Packo food product pump is being used by frozen food company d’Arta to help reduce the time between harvesting and freezing of vegetables to ensure freshness. By changing to Packo pumps, d’Arta saw a dramatic reduction in the total cost of ownership due to the cutting of maintenance costs.

Promtek – A recent upgrade for a well-known food manufacturer has improved weighing accuracy with the StoraWeigh 9000 process control software which was installed along with new weighing vessels and a combination of new control panels that help deliver raw materials in a more efficient and repeatable way. 

Multivac – The W500 is a universal and flexible flow packing solution designed specifically to support the use of sustainable packaging.  It can handle products with a maximum width of 200mm and a height of up to 120mm – with or without a tray.

Endoline – The Slimline 251 Endoline Fully Automatic Case Erector was installed for end-of-line packaging by egg producer, Bird Bros at its low carbon packing centre in Bedfordshire. Supporting the packing operation of four million eggs a week, the installation has helped the company meet ambitious sustainability goals – within weeks of installation Bird Bros reported efficiency gains of up to 10%.  

SEWTEC – A range of six automated moduar packaging machines comprises stand-alone machines, including a case erector, case closer, top loader, picker cell, pallet loader, and palletising system. The range was developed to provide customers of its bespoke solutions with flexible packaging solutions that offers high levels of functionality.

Beckhoff – Xplanar is an innovative transport solution that combines the advantages of conventional transport technologies with magnetic levitation to offer free 2D movement with up to six degrees of freedom. Hygienic versions of the solution are available for use in the food industry. 

ABB  – ABB has expanded its FlexPicker Delta robot portfolio with the IRB 365. With five axis and 1.5kg payload, the robot is said to be both flexible and the fastest in its class for reorientating packaged lightweight products such as cookies, chocolates, peppers, candies, small bottles, and parcels. 

Hamza has worked well with the team at Cumberland and has shown great potential when dealing with colleagues, contractors, permits and on specific projects. He takes on any tasks issued to him and has already become an integral part of the engineering team, assisting with the day-to-day running of the engineering department. Utilising the training given to him over the past three years he is now an expert in understanding the layout of the site and machinery. He is willing to work with all members of the team and asks questions when unsure. He has shadowed engineers on a day-to-day basis and taken on additional pneumatic and electrical fault finding tasks.

Hamza has become an asset to the site by involving himself with other functions and tasks such as audit trackers, health and safety, technical, engineering compliance and projects. He demonstrates accountability and self-motivation daily. He is also keen to increase his knowledge of preventative maintenance. 

Nathan is an engineering shift technician and has shown great confidence, exhibiting a mature and professional approach to his role which has resulted in him being held in high regard within the engineering department and across the site. He takes pride in his own work and that of the team in which he works.

Nathan completed a focus improvement project on the side guides to the infeed of the spiral elevators across all three canning lines. This eliminated damage that had been experienced, by way of the film being ripped from the cases. It also eliminated can wall damage. Cost saving was achieved by reducing spare-parts stock holding, due to standardising the roller guides to one type across both the canning and PET lines, as well as significant cost savings associated with elimination of production waste.

Jose is a technical field representative. Since his first interview we could see had the ideal blend of skills to become a fantastic engineer. He displayed adaptability, tenacity, and a real willingness to learn, alongside the charm and charisma that has made him so well-loved by his customers.  

Jose was brought onto a demanding project working with a fast-food chain. In just one year, he was certified by the manufacturer of the machines to a level four standard – reaching the same level as catering technicians with many years under their belt. Jose delivered his part of the project in full and on time and was a major contributor to CCEP winning an external business’ Service Company of the Year award.  

 

Jose has made remarkable progress; he performs brilliantly under pressure and acts on initiative. When dealing with sometimes difficult clients, he can strike exactly the right tone to diffuse situations and continue building effective relationships.