A&D Australasia’s Weighing Division recently solved a problem for local boutique coffee blender and roaster Veneziano Coffee, with a customised, portable weigh hopper that reduced OH&S risks and significantly improved their blending process.
Veneziano are renowned for their premium coffee so they expected a premium solution.
Weighing Hopper Solution Objectives were clear:
- Had to take the blending hopper to the 50kg sacks of imported raw beans – not the other way round (they don’t share our OH&S standards in places like Guatemala & Kenya – boy are those sacks heavy!)
- Needed to accurately add small and large amounts (within 50g accuracy) to create up to 400kg blends.
- Hopper was to be fully portable with battery or mains powered weight system on board.
- Robust design from Food Grade Stainless Steel with oversize wheels
The A&D Weighing design team went to work and the system was built, tested, inspected, delivered and training completed within budget and time-frame. Now the operators simply wheel the hopper to each pallet of raw beans, add the required amount to the hopper weigh scale, tare the A&D AD4406 controller before adding the next ingredient and so-on until the batch is completed. The hopper weigh scale is then wheeled into position under the vacuum pipe that extracts the beans up into the roaster.
Next step – a fresh Veneziano Espresso!
The benefits are significant and return on investment rapid:
- Lower OH&S risk from carrying heavy sacks
- Faster, more efficient weighing process, releasing extra labour for other tasks
- Improved batch QA & QC – able to record gross batch weights and individual ingredient weights
- Locally designed & manufactured solution, easily supported by their local scale service provider
They also ensured a “future-proof” system by utilising a Weighing controller that would easily allow the client to add wireless scale weight communication directly to their production PC if ever required. Most A&D scales, balances and weight indicators can be expanded in this way. A&D Weighing continue to prove that economical, Australian designed and manufactured solutions are a vital resource for local industry.