The design is currently being piloted in a number of locations across Europe and the US and is compatible with all starch moulding lines.
Three to nine month ROI
It can detect problems immediately after the printer table with production trays that are 1200 x 400 mm or 820 x 400.
Luuk Hilhorst, managing director, LHTechnology, told ConfectioneryNews the company was set up in 2004 to focus on the efficiency and quality of production in starch moulding, because any faults can cause stoppages and delays on a processing line.
The DTV System can be delivered within six to eight weeks of order and takes 40 minutes to install with expected ROI (Return On Investment) between three to nine months.
“DTV can identify when there is a deposit in the tray, when an imprint is not acceptable, when a plaster mould is missing, when a visible jelly part is in the tray, or when the wrong mouldboard is in or the correct one is not properly placed in a machine,” said Hilhorst.
“The system takes over the eyes of a machine operator and works 24/7 if required. A machine operator cannot check all trays longer than one hour constantly so the DTV system takes care of production.”
ROI is less than a year, depending on the customer, added Hilhorst.
If a manufacturer has to stop production due to too many dirty trays and take them all out, to wash them and put them back in and add starch, this causes a huge amount of delay.
The machine improves the quality of the product and reduces rework or triples and bigger missed deposits.
“There is no need to have somebody at the back of a machine to cut the jelly from the trays and no customer complaints of plaster/aluminium moulds in the final packaging,” he said.
“The trays do not need to be washed because there are no deposits on the tray base anymore.
The amount of trays not deposited because there not enough starch or misprints will vary per customer.”
The DTV System automatically stores an image of a 'good' production tray under a recipe name given by the operator.
Many recipe images can be stored in the system. Missing plaster/aluminum moulds are detected and the machine will stop before the trays are being stacked to remove the plaster or aluminium mould.
Also trays that have visible contamination will be detected and if ejected.
With an optional extra camera near the turntable or tipper arms the empty trays can be inspected if a jelly is on the base of the tray.
The image of each passing tray is compared to the 'good' one. The tray will not be filled with starch and can be removed from the system or with a tray eject system.