Ishida remains first choice for Prima Cheese’s growing business
Prima Cheese is recognised as one of the leading suppliers to the food manufacturing and foodservice sectors, offering a wide range of grated, shredded and diced cheeses, including several exclusive cheeses made to Prima’s precise specifications.
The immediate improvements in throughput and efficiencies delivered by a trial of Ishida’s newly launched CCW-AS multihead weigher at Prima Cheese, led the company to make an immediate purchase of the machine.
Facts and Figures
Accurate
The 14 head 3 litre CCW-AS model is weighing grated cheese from 500g – 2kg at typically 30 bags per minute with a weighing accuracy to within 0.2g per pack
Efficient
The CCW-AS features increased control and power of dispersion and radial feeders, delivering significantly higher efficiency rates that increased throughput by up to 40%
Challenge
Ishida has been a key partner of Prima Cheese since the company embarked on its first phase of expansion in 2008, with the speed, accuracy and efficiency of Ishida weighing solutions playing a key role in Prima’s continuing success and growth. The strength of the partnership made Prima the natural choice to test out the capabilities of the new Ishida AS multihead weigher range, which has been specifically designed to offer the highest weighing performance to further increase Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
Solution
“We buy Ishida weighers for their consistency, accuracy and reliability and we were therefore delighted to have the opportunity to assess the new AS version, while helping Ishida with their ongoing development work,” explained Prima Cheese’s Co CEO Nima Beni.
“Very quickly, we realised that the new weigher was making a huge positive impact on the line, helping to deliver efficiencies that increased throughput by between 30% to 40%, and that is why we decided to make it a permanent addition to the factory.”
“We have made the major improvements in our operations through our investment programmes over the past 15 years,” said Nima. “Now it is a case of gradual improvements, looking to enhance the performance of existing lines, for example, rather than establishing new ones.”
The installation of the Ishida CCW-AS is a perfect example. Replacing Prima Cheese’s original Ishida weigher, the increased speed and accuracy of the new model has resulted in Prima also installing a new cheese shredder and bagmaker to cope with the higher output of the Ishida.
“Our first Ishida was still performing extremely well but, as with any business, it is essential to keep driving forwards, and we could see how the new CCW-AS could transform this line and help us set and meet new targets,”
The CCW-AS is handling a variety of cheeses in pack sizes from 500g to 2kg. Speeds for the 2kg bags are around 30 bags per minute with accuracy to within 0.2g. The line can weigh up to 20 different products in any day, with changeovers easy to facilitate via the Ishida’s 16-inch colour touch screen HMI operator screen.
Another new feature on the weigher at Prima Cheese is the advanced vision monitoring system that incorporates a camera at the top of the weigher to monitor the product feed, with footage viewable on the HMI screen. This saves operators from having to make frequent physical inspections of the weigher.
While cheese is typically a difficult product to handle in an automated weighing system, the CCW-AS features increased control and power of all feeders. This ensures that the perfect amount of product is conveyed to the weigh hoppers, delivering higher efficiency rates.
Multihead Weighers for Dairy Food Producers
The CCW-AS is the fifth weigher to be installed at Prima Cheese since 2008 and like the others operates 24 hours, five days per week. Reliability has therefore been a key benefit of all the Ishida models throughout this time.
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