Ishida stages key Gulfood Manufacturing launch for latest multihead weigher
Covers were swiftly lifted to unveil Ishida’s latest multihead weighing system, the CCW-AS range, at this year’s Gulfood Manufacturing, marking the 50th anniversary of its flagship line, reports Neill Barston.
As the company explained to Confectionery Production at the major media launch at the global showcase taking place this week at the Dubai World Trade Centre, key attributes of its latest line include delivering 20% less energy consumption.
Delivered in its 11th generation, it has been devised to deliver high weighing performance to further increase Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), and gained its first trade-event airing on Tuesday, amid a buoyant market for the confectionery, snacks and wider food and drink sector within the Dubai and wider Gulf States region.
Speaking at the launch, Neil Wightley, business manager for the region, believed its latest offering held strong potential across its global markets.
He said: “A total of 60,000 machines have now been introduced to customers around the world, and Ishida continues to listen to its customers. Even though we have achieved that total, we are still learning, and need to implement that in our latest developments.
“So it is with this in mind that we unveil our latest machine, which is a step-change in check weighing for bulk weighing in the global food industry,” adding that its energy saving capabilities were a notable feature for its system.
Reflecting on the company’s strong history in the market segment, Steve Jones, marketing director of Ishida would prove a significant chapter.
He explained: “The launch of our first multihead weigher in December 1972 was undoubtedly a game changer for food packing, and in the years since then we have continually raised the bar in terms of the machines’ capabilities in areas such as speed, accuracy and the type of products they can handle,” said Steve Jones, Marketing Director of Ishida Europe.
“The Ishida CCW-AS range is the next stage in this journey which builds on the unique customer benefits delivered by previous Ishida ranges with enhancements founded on Ishida’s unmatched breadth of global customer and application experience”
Furthermore, the AS weigher provides significant increases in productivity, enhanced hygienic design and simultaneously addresses environmental concerns, all combining to maximise profitability in highly competitive markets.
Among its many performance enhancements is product transportation to the weigh hoppers with both increased control and power of all feeders, this is especially beneficial in high volume or sticky product applications.
In addition, each feeder channel contains an integrated optical feedback system that uses sensors to monitor product depth in real time. This allows both the feed amplitude and time to be independently adjusted on each vibrator ensuring the perfect amount of product is conveyed to the weigh hoppers.
The result of these enhancements are higher efficiency rates with more hoppers available for each combination to deliver even higher speeds and greater accuracy, which in turn reduce giveaway and improve production output.
Additionally, an advanced vision monitoring system with multiple cameras can be positioned at the top of the weigher to monitor the product feed so that production efficiency can be maintained and further enhanced. Live camera footage can be viewed from the 16 inch colour touch screen HMI operator screen, a further CCW-AS enhancement.
From a hygienic perspective a slanted weigh drive unit cover and main body frame also enhance cleaning efficiency, thus reducing labour, increasing uptime and saving on cleaning consumables.
Despite its enhanced performance, the Ishida CCW-AS delivers a 20 percent reduction in energy consumption compared to previous models. Noise levels have also been further reduced with the weigher around 16db quieter when operating at full speed.
The Ishida CCW-AS range will be available in a range of sizes, with models offering between 10 and 36 heads and hopper sizes from 0.05 to 7 litres. This provides the greatest versatility in the handling of products of all shapes, sizes and characteristics and allows the bespoke selection of equipment to serve customer’s exact product needs.