High capacity, with less labor, is the way
to develop new products in countries
with high labor costs. However, the quest
to minimize labor costs and increase
production could not be pursued at the
expense of product quality. Providing
the quality is often achieved by taking
practical measures around the plant.
“When designing the line for our
customer Danpo we looked for example
at different aspects that were important
to the customer – not only space and
functionality, but also the environmental
aspect, food safety, cleanliness, ease of
maintaining an overview and working
conditions. I must say, we are proud of
the result,” says Jos van Dommelen, GEA
Group Leader Product & Project Sales
Support.
Danish customer is convinced of
the line’s advantages
Danpo, part of Scandi Standard, the
largest chicken processing enterprise in
Scandinavia, commissioned GEA in 2018
to build a fully automatic line for chicken
nuggets. The factory in Farre, Denmark,
produces a wide range of fully-cooked
chicken products over four production
lines. “GEA helped us to develop the line
machine by machine. They provided a
round-the-clock service with quick, easy
solutions to improve the line capacity
and performance,” explains Per Ulrik
Jørgensen, Danpo Product Technical
Manager at the Farre factory.
The meat is delivered to the line in 500 kg
batches, ground, then mixed with water
and a range of ingredients and chilled
to -2 degrees Celsius in the GEA ProMix
via the use of nitrogen. GEA’s patented
step-fill system pumps the meat into the
GEA MaxiFormer to create the desired
only a quick forming drum replacement When customers must comply with
and some light rinsing of the conveyors traceability regulations, the system can
– approximately every 10 hours. For be used to record all material movements
the rest of the time, the operators just throughout the process while interacting
watch and maintain an overview. When with the customer’s systems. Barcode
the operators can put their hands in their scanners are used to record all manual
pockets, and have nothing to do, I know material additions and label printers are
it’s working well,” Jørgensen adds. used to identify all materials discharged to
Individual automation of
processes
Each customer has different needs
and framework of conditions. Some
customers require less, while others are
looking for models that offer even more
connectivity than required by Danpo.
At the center of each automated process
is the ability to start multiple machines
at once while ensuring the safety of the
production environment – which then
increases productivity. Key features
are semi-automatic batch control and
machine collision interlock. For example,
the interconnection of the belt loader,
filler and former eliminates the need to
use and store trolleys given everything
remains in flow. This first level of
automation is available from single
equipment to full line set up.
bins/containers. The system allows users
to find out where materials were used and
to trace the process conditions for end
products. By using an ERP system on the
customer side, this module can also be
extended with an ERP interface – preventing
the double entry of recipes and material lists.
The interface also reports production data
back to the customer’s ERP system.
With an office client (i.e. computer inside
the office environment) the customer has
the same view as the employees on the
production floor. It is easy to oversee the
complete process as well as create recipes.
Planning and analyzing the data is easier in
this environment.
GEA automated systems can fulfill
customer demands with different modules
that can be extended in functionality,
for both connected machines and client
connections.
gea.com
shape in a stable filling process. The
nuggets are then moved by conveyor
through a pre-duster, cooked to a core
temperature of 73 C, breaded or battered
as required then flash fried at 190 C, and
frozen. The entire process takes just six
minutes. “With GEA delivering all the
equipment on the line we were certain
each element would fit together and be
compatible,” says Per Ulrik Jørgensen.
“We run 60-hour production shifts, with
FDPP - www.fdpp.co.uk 55