Sew-Eurodrive and Alway move to automate blue cheese making
Credit: Alway/Sew-Eurodrive
With the aim to speed up cheese piercing while maintaining product quality for a Stilton manufacturer in the UK, manufacturer and supplier of stainless-steel equipment and machinery Alway turned to drive technology firm Sew-Eurodrive UK for help with the HSP9000, a cheese piercing machine. It is the first product of Alway’s HSP (High-Speed Piercer) brand. Cheese piercing is a process involved in the making of blue cheese, where long thin metal needles are inserted into the cheese, allowing oxygen to activate the Penicillium roqueforti that has been added to the milk, making the blue streaks while adding flavour.
After identifying the hardware needed, SEW’s applications team then helped implement SEW’s motion control Movikit software, which gives commissioning engineers access to all control functions within a single interface.
The entirely automated solution developed by the two companies can pierce 8,000 full cheeses per day, increasing efficiency and reducing waste by ensuring a uniform distribution of mould cultures every time. For the end customer, the system is more dynamic, reliable and flexible, resulting in near double the product output per hour due to SEW’s automated solution.
Compared to a traditional mechanical machine, the fully automated system offers more adaptability in production. Interactive recipes are displayed on the SEW drive operator panel (DOP) human-machine interface (HMI) for different products, coupled to the six-axis SEW MOVI-C Movidrive Modular and UHX motion controller.
This drives the CMS electric cylinders and CM3C servo geared motors, allowing customers the option to adjust the machine’s settings based on the products that are being produced.
Discussing the collaboration process, Reece Taylor, director of group operations at Alway, said, “When we were developing our HSP9000 system, we worked to build a system that ensures piercing precision every time, while also increasing the efficiency of the large-scale production lines of our customers.
“Through the HSP9000, we’ve been able to set new standards for efficiency in the world of blue cheese processing,” he added.
