June 2018 Newsletter: “Artisan Bakery Robot”

What’s new in robotics?   
In this issue, automation meets the
increasing demand for artisan products.

You’ve seen robots weld and palletize,
but this new frontier of automation might surprise you.

The Artisan Robot Baker
Improves Productivity

Noticing a high demand for hand crafted Artisan bread,
our friends over at TechBrew showed the world
that robots can be artisan bakers too.

We’ve included the case study for an interesting read
and some videos on artisan bread scoring and proofing.
If you are in need of Industrial Baking Robotics, get in touch

 PROBLEM

Product quality and consistency, worker overuse injuries, the lack of quality labour and missed baking time windows in zonal oven loading were the key problems Tech Brew’s first system was designed to relieve.

 SOLUTION

Technology Brewing designed a bakery robot system using a Kawasaki robot. 

The scoring robot automatically scores randomly positioned loaves with an ultrasonic knife according to user defined products. The robot locates proofed bread dough using 3D machine vision technology housed in a food safe enclosure.

Knowing the exact location and 3 dimensional geometry of each loaf means that this robot can score relative to the top surface of each loaf at the exact desired score location and angle.  It actually follows the curvature of the dough.

Built specifically for the industrial bakery, this system is relatively compact, intuitive, easy to use and can be quickly installed to minimize production downtime.

It comes with installation support and remote support features for those rare times that technical help is required. 

This system has a fast payback for most wholesale bakeries because of its high and consistent throughput combined with high work quality and resulting product consistency, all while reducing labor cost.  Note that robots operate 24/7 so a robot bread scoring system will replace 3 or more workers for a commercial bakery operating 24 hours a day.