Kanes Foods, based in the Vale of Evesham, has taken delivery of a turnkey process weighing and traceability system from Marco Weighing Systems which is now at the heart of new dedicated production line for preparing pre-packed coleslaws, fresh pasta salad and sauces for a major multiple.
Kanes' coleslaws include prawn, cheese and fruit, as well as more traditional recipes. In the same area, it also produces trayed pasta salads, tubs of salad for salad bars and over 50 different sauces.
Producing several million trays of speciality coleslaws a year requires not only a high degree of automation but also clear real-time visibility of the process, together with availability and location data on the large number of ingredients.
The latest solution at Kanes is based around Marco's E4 TRAC-IT software suite. Working in conjunction with the central Mitsubishi FX series programmable logic controller (PLC) and E900 man-machine interface (MMI), TRAC-IT offers a novel blend of control, visibility and traceability, which in turn ensures optimum production flexibility and efficiency.
The system has no fewer than 33 weighing points, including 15 Datamaster workstations, bulk and intermediate storage vessels and mixing vessels.
Controlling mayonnaise production is a critical part of the overall process and over 20t are mixed and used each day. There are three different blends and each batch is freshly mixed from the five main ingredients in two individual 1000kg capacity mixing vessels mounted on load cells. They use a combination of weight and torque data from the mixer motor to produce the 'perfect mix'.
The main coleslaw-mixing hopper is mounted on three load cells. The required weights of diced cabbage, carrot and onion, together with the other ingredients, are automatically fed by conveyor into the hopper before the mayonnaise is pumped in and the recipe mixed. The dynamic weight trend is fully recorded and any anomalous weight changes are instantly detected and flagged up.
Contact: Marco Weighing Systems, Tel: 01342 870103