When interfacing with the food industry, the level of attention and the need to take care of every detail inevitably increases. This case history recounts an important project recently developed by Granzotto, which combines high performance, industrial automation, and personalized training and assistance services to create a precise food ingredient dosing system in a food production plant.
The customer and their needs
The customer is a well-established food industry company, a leader in the confectionery sector, both in Italy and internationally. The production plant involved in this project is one of the seven in the world that are part of the group in Italy.
For the preparation of one of its flagship products, the company previously used a semi-automatic system that required continuous manual intervention by operators. With this project, the client aimed to automate the processes in the department and, consequently, to enhance the production capacity in a food plant. This significant investment represents a huge technological leap forward for the company and thus required a reliable, qualified, and competent partner.
The project
In order to meet the customer’s requirements, it was essential to create a tailor-made system with high quality standards from a technical point of view and with a specific focus on training. Granzotto took care of the design, construction, assembly, and finally the installation in 2022 of a solution for the transfer of food liquids such as palm and coconut oils along with their dosage with other ingredients (soya lecithin, invert sugar) and their transport to the dough in preparation.
Granzotto’s operational flexibility allowed for changes during the process due to a change in raw materials, enabling the adaptation of technology after the work had already started to optimize it based on the characteristics of the new food product.
Challenges and Innovation
The client’s process presents two critical issues: the need to maintain palm oil at a temperature between 45°C and 55°C, and the dosage and mixing of soy lecithin. This additive, widely used in the confectionery industry, tends to thicken, creating lumps in the dough. It is therefore essential to incorporate lecithin into palm oil gradually, in an automated manner, while keeping the fluid’s temperature constant to prevent precipitates that would compromise the final quality.
For this reason, Granzotto developed an automatic lecithin dosing and mixing system by implementing a mass flow meter and a dynamic mixer. Thanks to the combination of these two technologies, the lecithin is dosed and mixed before reaching the dough, directly in line, to avoid the mixture’s stagnation which would result in deposit precipitation.
This intervention marked a turning point for the client company: by automating the most critical phase of the process, the root causes of production issues and delays were eliminated. The installation of the custom-made plant by Granzotto allowed for the qualitative standardization of the food product, as well as reducing human intervention and increasing operational performance.
Training and remote support activity
The client company already had other plants within its facility, but in this department, it was about introducing innovative technology. Consequently, structuring adequate training and accompanying personnel in the transition from the semi-manual systems used up to that point to a next-generation system was of primary importance.
A group of 5 operators from the client was supported by a Granzotto technician, who explained the complete operation of the plant on-site. A specific and targeted training activity was set up to provide transversal skills: from mechanical settings to recipe interpretation, how to program the dosage of individual ingredients, to the management of new components. The collaboration included a focus on industrial automation, preparing operators to perform problem-solving and basic maintenance.
Investment in training allows personnel to be autonomous in identifying anomalies; an advantage for the client both in terms of time reduction and in the perspective of maximum process efficiency and continuous improvement. In the case of more complex problems, operators can always contact Granzotto’s technical support remotely, which can check the problem in real-time through a teleservice.
This partnership adds to the numerous successful references of plants realized in the food and beverage sector. The Granzotto team supports the client in all phases, including the training part, which plays a fundamental role in the correct management of plants, especially when, as in this case study, they are highly automated.
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