TWO Ishida multihead weighers are said to be proving their worth at Mondelēz International’s Capriata d’Orba plant in Italy.
Mondelēz Italia Biscuits Production S.p.A. operates one of the firm’s most important European facilities for snack production. Iconic brands such as Ritz and Cipster are manufactured here for a range of international markets.
The Ritz brand accounts for approximately 20% of the plant’s total output. In order to support these volumes and further improve packing line efficiency, the company decided to invest in the upgrade of its weighing technology which resulted in the installation of two Ishida CCW-RVE 14-head multihead weighers.
Ishida revealed the previous weighers in use had been in operation for many years and were beginning to show signs of weight inconsistencies and reliability issues. Before the upgrade, the standard deviation of the weighing process was close to two grams, a value that generated unwanted product giveaway.
The new CCW-RVE multihead weighers are each equipped with 14 weighing heads and a hopper volume of 1.5 litres. The multiheads were configured in collaboration with Ishida’s local distributor Itech to align with the product characteristics and requirements of the packaging line.
One of the main interventions was the downsizing of the weigh hopper volume compared with the previous machines. This was done to enhance the accuracy and consistency of the weighing process.
The weighers operate in combination with a vertical bagmaker and achieve a standard speed of approximately 65 packs per minute, with the possibility of running at higher speeds depending on pack format and production conditions.
Ishida listed a ‘high level’ of automation as another advantage: During operation, no operator needs to be deployed to look after the weighers. Line personnel supervise the entire process and intervene only for periodic checks, such as metal detector verification or scheduled cleaning.
The introduction of the new weighers is said to have ‘significantly’ reduced product giveaway, while the machines achieve efficiency levels of ‘up to’ 98%/ Ishida added that process stability has also improved and the number of products damaged during the weighing process has reduced by approximately 3%.
“With these new Ishida weighers, we have been able to significantly improve production stability,” said Samuele Mazzei, maintenance manager for the Ritz and Cipster lines at the Capriata d’Orba site. “Weighing accuracy is much higher and the machines have proven to be extremely reliable.”
