Rademaker
Assembly Line
Automation that displays flashes of creativity
More complex icing and decorating systems are replacing traditional waterfall icing operations. For example, Inline Filling Systems recently developed a swirled icing decoration on top of a fully baked cake. The system relies on servo pump fillers feeding a pair of eight-across nozzle manifolds attached to two ABB robots applying a distinctive, programmable decoration pattern over an Auto-Bake Serpentine production line.
The Deco-Bot is a self-contained robotic decorating, glazing, depositing and spraying system with a built-in conveyor and quick hookup for heated and non-heated pumps. “Cobots are not the speed demon robotics you see on a caged line. They serve a different purpose,” he explained. “They help manufacturers with the labor crisis with a small footprint while being easy to clean and set up, and they are very safe.” It’s not uncommon to see 10 to 12 cobots decorating cakes night and day on the same production line.
Automation helps bakers make the most of ingredients
While many bakers hope and anticipate raw material costs will ease in 2023, that future is not now. Ingredient costs remain high, especially when it comes to premium ingredients such as dairy, eggs and sugar. While product loss and waste is never desirable, at these prices, waste just got unaffordable. And this isn’t limited to ingredient costs either. The price of labor itself has indulgent products like sweet goods costing more to produce these days. Manufacturers of these products are looking for ways to reduce waste and improve production efficiencies to bring these costs in line.
“Automation is the answer here,” said Hans Besems, executive product manager, AMF Tromp, an AMF Bakery Systems brand. “We can automate almost the complete process and take over where human labor is hard to find or where it is too intensive. An automated process eliminates many opportunities for finished product to fall out of spec, but it’s critical that the dough being fed to the makeup line is consistent.”
“With smart technologies and AI, AMF Tromp uses vision technology to evaluate every single product in real time, and by machine learning the Tromp machines will adapt automatically, resulting in almost no waste and perfect products repeatedly,” Mr. Besems said.