Powder handling systems with robots
Automated powder handling systems
Powder handling and weighing is a vital step in many industries. Whether in food production, personal care and FMCG, chemistry, textiles, paints and coatings, plastics or rubber manufacturing, a large number of powdered ingredients must be measured out to an exact recipe to ensure the final product complies with quality and safety checks. And while big bags / super sacks or silos can automate the dosing of large quantities, when it comes to minor and micro additions, the majority of businesses must rely on operators to get the job done.
Yet this is far from an ideal solution. Whether it’s concerns around costs, waste, traceability or the health and safety of the operators themselves, manufacturers understand the drawbacks of manual powder handling. What if there were a way to automate these processes?
Fully automate the handling of powders in your operations with APRIL. Our robotic based powder handling solutions provide a flexible and scalable solution to solve overcome the challenges of bulk powder material handling.
OAL have designed and supplied pneumatic conveying systems to high volume UK bakeries.
Powder handling trends
Rising labour costs
Rising labour costs are a continual source of concern for manufacturers due to the reliance on people to handle powders globally. In the UK, the introduction of the living wage and concerns over the availability of labour following Brexit have further exacerbated the problem.
We can automate high usage ingredients with pneumatic transfer systems but an estimated 62% by labour cost are handled manually.
Health & safety risks
Daily exposure to powder and dust represents a significant health and safety risk.
The nature of the tasks involved means mitigating risk associated with manual handling is on the top of the manufacturer’s agenda. Whilst respiration devices can be worn by operators, the best form of mitigation is to remove the person from the task.
Transparent, trusted ingredient declarations aka “Open Kitchen”
Consumers are clamouring for truth and transparency relating to ingredients and processes. Naturally manual weighing operations are subject to human error.
Consumers can increase their confidence in products, safe in the knowledge a robot has weighed and prepared their powders.
Why robots?
Robots are inherently more reliable than humans. When people are involved in powder handling, they make mistakes; that’s human nature when performing repetitive tasks during an eight-hour shift. However, when operators are dealing with allergens or harmful chemicals, this can have dire consequences. If the wrong ingredient is chosen or a label is misread, it can lead to risk to operator and consumer safety. Unmanned facilities remove this risk as once programmed, they can’t make mistakes. With a mean downtime of 30 minutes per year, they also don’t need to stop to maintain their effectiveness, helping to boost your productivity.
The APRIL Robotics Weighing System allows manufacturers to do the same weighing and handling tasks that operators have traditionally completed but much more accurately, without error or waste, and at much faster rates. This can transform productivity levels, allowing you to become more competitive, as well as reducing your costs as only one operator is needed to manage the system.
In answer to workforce fears of job losses, it’s clear that tasks are more likely to be automated away than entire jobs. Repetitive, routine roles, such as weighing out / scaling ingredients becoming automated removes potential health and safety issues. Operators will no longer be exposed to the dangers of dust inhalation and the occupational asthma that goes with it. Similarly, robots can pick up heavy items, so musculoskeletal disorders should be avoided. With the introduction of automation, operators will be needed in more value-added roles such as controlling robots or maintenance of equipment. The challenge will be to ensure that our workforce has the right skills to meet this future vision.