Fabio Balassi
An Ishida multihead weigher is an integral part of a bespoke fully automated packing system for a range of crisps produced by leading Swiss brewery Brauerei Locher from some of the by-products of the brewing process. The system is packing up to 50 bags of crisps per minute in three pack sizes with a maximum overfill of only 1.2g per pack.
Locher, based in Appenzell, takes the nutrient-rich brewing by-products including yeast, wort or spent grain and turns them into delicious foods such as snacks, pizzas, muesli and meat substitutes. The ingredients for its Tschipps crisp brand, launched in 2017, include barley malt wort from the brew house and yeast and first wort from the brewery’s fermenting cellar.
The company originally outsourced the packing of its Tschipps. But with annual growth of 30% to 40%, the brewery soon decided to bring the process in house and keep the creation of value under its own roof. It also aimed to improve its carbon footprint by cutting down on transport.
Through the commissioning of Rotkreuz-based Itech AG to install a fully automated packing system, Locher acquired a contact capable of providing support for the entire line. As part of this, the experts from Itech and Ishida designed a solution comprising feed system, Ishida multihead weigher, bagmaker and gantry. The seasoning system was also integrated into the line.
The freshly fried snacks are first carried via a conveyor and belt elevator to be fed into the seasoning system. To prevent vibrations in the machinery being transferred to the downstream multihead weigher, the weigher is placed on a separate gantry. Beneath it is an intermittent-motion vertical bagmaker with integrated metal detector. Filled packs are then transferred to a rotary packing table.
Efficient weighing plays a crucial role on the packing line. The Tschipps need to be portioned and transferred to the VFFS bagmaker as quickly and precisely as possible. An Ishida multihead weigher can accomplish this task with impressive reliability. Ishida developed the CCW-SE3 series for the automated weighing of free-flowing dry products with low target weights, as is the case in Locher's application.
The 10-head Ishida CCW-SE3-210 weigher regulates the flow of product by interfacing with an upstream vibratory feeder. The vibratory feeder drops the snacks gently onto the weigher's dispersion table. From there, the product travels across 10 radial feeder troughs to the 10 pool and weigh hoppers.
A loadcell in the dispersion table ensures that the flow to the radial feeder troughs, which can be individually adjusted, remains constant. High performance stepper motors manage the hoppers, making sure they open at exactly the right times to maintain consistent speed and accuracy so that the product flows through the multihead weigher in one smooth process.
The weigher then selects a combination of weigh hoppers (usually three or four) whose collective weights come closest to the selected target weight and releases each precisely dosed portion via a transfer chute directly into the bagmaker. Ishida’s digital filtering software allows the weight combinations to be calculated to an excellent accuracy of 0.1g.
The CCW-SE3-210 weigher is very easy to operate and designed for maximum hygiene. Changing products and target weights by calling up pre-sets at the touch of a button has proved a major time-saver. The fact that all contact parts can be removed, cleaned and re-installed without the use of tools cuts down considerably on time for changeovers and cleaning.
Locher currently produces snacks with fill weights of 10g, 30g and 90g. The weigher’s performance meets the customer’s requirement for consistently accurate pack weights, with a maximum overfill of only 1.2 g per pack. Depending on the selected target weight, the packing line is operating at speeds of 30 to 50 packs per minute, although the Ishida CCW-SE3 is capable of significantly higher speeds. This makes the weigher a highly future proof investment.
Locher is aiming to make the most of its modern snacks packing line to add more chapters to the success story of its Tschipps. For example, the company is planning to introduce a 150g pack size to its range. “And one day, we intend to make sustainable use of all the wort derived from our brewing process,” says Yves Habermacher, head of food production at Locher.