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Ishida helps make yoghurts more crunchy, with less giveaway

07/01/1999

Yoghurts supplied with separate crunchy elements, which are mixed in by the consumer just before eating, are increasingly popular across Europe.

Ishida Europe has been working with Multiforsa AG, based in Steinhausen, Switzerland, to provide packaging machinery to package these ‘extra’ elements for use by dairy manufacturers across Europe. Multiforsa is the leading European producer of extrusions, biscuits and flakes for the dairy industry, with operations also in Luxembourg and France.

One sophisticated Multiforsa offering is the ‘Top Cup’. This is a transparent plastic container which is filled with crunchy material and sealed with an aluminium membrane. The complete unit is supplied to, for example, a yoghurt manufacturer, who clips the Top Cup onto the filled and sealed yoghurt pot. The need for Ishida accuracy Multiforsa successfully operated its first Top Cup filling line for about two years, using an auger filler, a shaft-driven automated filling machine and a case packer.

However, the products being packed by the packaging system are particularly light, and packaging target weights are small. While using auger dosing, Multiforsa was forced to accept a high rate of giveaway, in order to avoid underweight. This motivated the company to investigate whether performance could be improved by the incorporation of a high quality Ishida multihead weighing machine.

The company has now added a second line which consists of an Ishida CCW-RZ-212P-D/05-PB Compact multihead weigher, designed to handle small target weights at high speed, a filling machine with two servo drives and a casepacker.

The Ishida has not only greatly increased accuracy, and proportionately reduced giveaway. It has also eliminated the problem of breakage because of its gentle handling of the product. This is despite an impressive speed of 120 Top Cups filled per minute. The compact design of the Ishida weighing machine was a further advantage, as limited headroom was available.

Once weighed, product is passed to the filling machine. This fills and seals four cups at a time and passes them via a conveyor belt to the case packer, which groups the Top Cups, picks and places them into boxes, ready for dispatch.

The multihead weigher was supplied directly by Ishida Europe. Ishida engineers also designed and built the special distribution system by which the product reaches the plastic containers.

The dairy industry commonly demands just-in-time delivery, often of relatively small lots. Add to this the frequent introduction of innovative products and it is clear that suppliers like Multiforsa have to be extremely flexible in their approach.

The new packing line, with its Ishida multihead weigher, is able to accommodate frequent product and pack changes with a minimum of downtime, placing Multiforsa in an enviable position when it comes to expanding its offering to the market.