Food industry automation
Good isn’t enough. You have to prove it.
For producers of pasta, baked goods, dairy and beverages: automation from silo to pallet, cleaning included, with the data for every lot ready for whoever asks.
What’s different in food
Here the line stops on purpose. For cleaning and changeovers.
A food line spends part of the shift not producing: it gets cleaned, changes over, waits for the oven or the pasteurizer to come back up to temperature. That’s where time is lost and mistakes are made: a valve left open, the recipe from the previous format, a cleaning cycle cut short to get going again. The controls matter in those moments as much as during production.
It’s the work we’ve been doing since 1996: electrical schematics, control panels, PLC and HMI software, testing and start-up. In food, we’ve worked on pasta and baked-goods lines, milk and dairy lines, and beverage lines: from raw-material dosing to end of line. Plants call us when a line needs an upgrade, and machine builders call us when they need someone to do the electrical and the software.
From silo to pallet
First it gets measured. Then it’s on record.
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Raw materials · Dosing
Dosed by weight, logged by lot.
Silos on load cells, pneumatic conveying, safety sifter, hopper scales. Flours and semolina are dosed by weight, water by the liter and at temperature. Every weighing stays tied to the raw-material lot. In dust zones, components and enclosures match the area classification.
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The dough · Press and die
Pressure and temperature, ahead of the die.
Semolina and water dosed in ratio, vacuum in the mixing trough, screw speed. Head pressure is read continuously: above the maximum, the screw stops. Barrel and head are temperature-controlled with water, to keep the dough below 50 °C.
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The air · Dryer and oven
Temperature and humidity, zone by zone.
In the dryer, every zone has its own temperature and humidity, and every shape its own drying curve. In the tunnel oven, top and bottom heat are controlled separately; bake time is the belt speed. A stop downstream halts loading, not the belt.
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The liquids · Pasteurizer
Below temperature, the product goes back.
Plate or tubular: if the temperature at the end of the holding tube drops below the threshold, the flow diversion valve sends the product back to the start. Temperatures, flow rate and diversions are recorded. In the beverage tunnel pasteurizer, with the line stopped, the hot zones drop in temperature to avoid over-pasteurizing.
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Cleaning · CIP system
Time counts only at temperature.
Caustic, acid, rinses: the time of each phase counts only once return temperature and conductivity are at setpoint and the flow rate is high enough for turbulence. The valves confirm their position: product and solution don’t meet. Every cleaning cycle leaves its own report.
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The pack · End of line
The scale corrects the filler.
The checkweigher weighs every pack and corrects the filler based on the average. The metal detector and the rejector work with reject confirmation: if the rejected pack doesn’t land in the bin, the line stops. Lot and expiration date are verified as printed, all the way to the pallet label.
Make a product that isn’t listed here? Ask an engineer whether it’s a job for us.
In food, we have worked for
What we bring to the line
Schematic, panel, software, start-up. Built for washdown areas.
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The electrical schematic
Every probe has its tag.
Process valves with their limit switches, temperature and conductivity probes, flow meters, pump drives: the tag is the same on the schematic, in the panel and in the field. Whoever is hunting a fault halfway through a cleaning cycle finds the tag written on the cable.
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The panel
On the plant floor, stainless and a sloped top.
In the electrical room, a painted cabinet is enough. Where washdown is done with a spray lance, the enclosure is stainless steel, with a sloped top, and gaskets and cable glands chosen for the jets and the detergents. Every panel leaves our workshop wired and tested, with its CEI EN 61439 declaration of conformity.
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The PLC and HMI software
Recipes, cleaning and lots, one HMI.
Recipes by product and by format, cleaning sequences, permissives between production and CIP. The HMI shows which phase the line is in and what’s still missing before it can start. At the end of the shift you’re left with the production and cleaning reports, with date, time and lot.
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Testing and start-up
First a full cleaning cycle, then product.
In Mesero the panel is powered up and tested with its software: inputs, outputs, sequences, stops. At the plant we check probes and scales, run a full cleaning cycle and then the first production run, with real product. We stay on the plant floor until the line runs on its own.
Questions
We get asked these standing at the line.
Seven short answers. The rest depends on your line.
Pasteurization and cleaning are recorded on paper today. Can that be automated?
Yes. Temperatures, flow rates, diversions and cleaning phases are logged by the PLC with date, time and lot, and printed or exported when needed. If the chart recorder has to stay, it stays: the two systems work side by side.
On the plant floor we wash down with hot water under pressure. Do panels and HMIs hold up?
They’re designed for it. The washdown area gets stainless-steel enclosures, with gaskets and cable glands suited to the jets and the detergents; whatever can stay off the plant floor goes in the electrical room. That’s decided on the floor plan, before anything is built.
Changeovers take us too long. Can they be shortened?
The part that depends on the controls, yes. When the recipes are in the PLC, the format is called up from the HMI: speeds, temperatures, weights and tolerances load together. The HMI lists the manual adjustments still to be made, and the line restarts when they’re confirmed.
We only stop for scheduled maintenance. Does the work fit in that window?
Yes, if almost everything is done beforehand. While the line is producing, we survey the signals, build the panel and bench-test the software in our workshop. During the shutdown we connect, test and restart. Before we begin, we tell you how many days it takes.
Production data has to reach the ERP. Do you do that?
Yes. Lots, weights, times and alarms can be passed to the ERP or the MES. What gets exchanged, and in which direction, is worked out with the people who run the network and with production, before the software is written.
The machine is from a foreign builder and the program is locked. Can you work on it?
It depends on what’s needed. If the program can be read, we modify it and keep a copy of how it was. If it’s locked, we work around the machine, on the signals it exchanges with the line, or we rewrite the controls: in that case it’s a revamp, and we assess it together. Revamping machines and lines
Once start-up is over, are we on our own?
No. Support is included for the first year: software changes, HMI screens, fault analysis. The person who programmed your line answers and, where there’s an authorized remote connection, looks at it from Mesero together with you.
Where to start
Write to us before the shutdown. Most of the work is done with the line running.
What you make and on which line: pasta, bakery, dairy, beverages.
A photo of the open control panel and of the operator panel.
The date of the next shutdown, and what you want to find changed at restart.
You can attach photos, schematics and drawings to the form. An engineer reads them: the reply comes within 1–2 business days.