THE investment in a new Ishida multihead weigher at Wierzejki, a Polish meat manufacturer, is said to have ‘considerably’ improved line throughputs and resulted in a payback of approximately 18 months.
The CCW-RVE-214W-1S-30-WP replaced a ‘laborious and time-consuming’ hand packing operation, which required six people to pack the required 1.2 tonnes of dumplings every hour. The amount of product giveaway was also a major issue, with packs as much as 25g over their target weight. Ishida said the new weigher has resulted in overall losses being reduced from 5% to less than 2% per pack.
“Precision is everything in our business and this was the driving force behind our investment in the Ishida solution,” said Adam Zdanowski from Wierzejki. “And, of course, the Ishida multihead brings important economic benefits through the weigher’s high accuracy and consistency as well as significant efficiency improvements and the elimination of human error.”
The CCW-RVE-214 is weighing dumplings mainly into 400g packs but is able to handle a large variety of pack weights, including multiple weighments into the same pack for very large foodservice packs, using the ‘multi-dump’ mode. This gives Wierzejki the flexibility to respond quickly to market and customer demands.
Ishida added that the consistency of pack weights that the weigher delivers also helps to enhance the consumer experience to support Wierzejki’s premium brand image.
The RVE model features the patented Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technology, designed to provide greater control of the infeed of product at the top of the weigher and during transfer to the hoppers. By being able to automatically vary the amplitude and duration of vibration, Ishida explained the vibratory feeders deliver a ‘controlled and consistent’ flow of product in order to maintain speed and efficiencies while ‘virtually eliminating’ overfill in the hoppers.
A distribution system beneath the weigher provides a ‘fast and efficient’ transfer of dumplings into the thermoforming machine.
This is the second Ishida multihead weigher to be installed at Wierzejki. “Because we already knew of the weigher’s accuracy and reliability, Ishida was the obvious choice for this further investment,” added Mr Zdanowski. “In addition, as this is a specialist application, Ishida’s experience with our type of products was also a key factor in the decision to invest in the new multihead weigher.”
The weigher was installed by Ishida’s local partner in Poland, Fenix Systems. Installation was completed in under two days and Fenix hosted a one-day workshop to help operators familiarise themselves with the machine, as well as providing ongoing remote technical support.
“Our new Ishida weigher has given us increased accuracy and efficiency, and no downtime, together with excellent service and support, all of which are delivering significant improvements to the bottom line,” concluded Mr Zdanowski “Today it is hard to imagine dumpling production without the Ishida multihead weigher.”
