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With over 100 years’ experience in the market, you could hardly say IMA Coffee Petroncini was green (inexperienced) when it comes to green coffee processing. Yet experience is not everything. Engineering capabilities, technological evolution driven by constant investments in research & development, and last — but not least — the relationship with customers, focused on understanding their needs and adapting each system to bring it in line with their objectives.
The latest solutions were developed to optimize reception of the green coffee and all the subsequent processing stages. Each solution will be adapted according to the needs of each customer and takes into account factors such as efficiency, productivity, and safety combined with close attention to coffee integrity, plant capacity, and the processing line.
The right reception equipment for each processing plant
What makes the difference right from the start is to provide the most suitable solution for coffee reception according to the plant. A look at a few different scenarios will clarify this issue.
Plants processing 500kg of green coffee per hour will be fine receiving 60-70kg pallet-loaded jute bags of green coffee which will be handled indoors on a hopper and cut open manually. The hopper can be installed underground or on a supporting frame. Then the coffee is transferred to storage silos or directly to the roaster using an aspiration system.
The most convenient solution for plants with a larger capacity entails bag reception from trailers equipped with an integrated tilting unit, however it is just as easy to envisage extracting the bags from the container and placing them on a tilting unit inside the reception area. Combined with a sorting unit which handles the bags downstream, the bags can simply be fed one by one to the cutting unit. Belt conveyors are another flexible solution to bring the bags inside the facility. The conveyor can extend telescopically into the delivery truck allowing operators to position the bags on the swivel head. Implementing robotic technologies, IMA Coffee Petroncini is able to supply appropriate automatic bag opening or palletizing systems. This enables superb flexibility when production requires late bag picking.
Further options include a tilting platform for depalletization combined with a bag cutting unit. This improves efficiency when reception rates are around 750 bags per hour.
Facilities handling big bags without any form of automation will welcome an unloading station on top of the hopper. When higher production rates are necessary, bags can be unloaded onto a special structure including a spiked cutting device to open them without manual intervention.
Larger processing plants tend to receive green coffee loaded onto a trailer or in a container. Petroncini solutions include outdoor hoppers for bulk loads arriving directly from a tilting unit. Coffee is then pneumatically transferred to storage silos within maximum 45 minutes after unloading.
IUTHAS®: unique combined bag and bulk receiving solution
The only system available on the market which handles both bags and bulk coffee from containers is designed by Petroncini. Thanks to an alternating sliding mechanism – forward for bags and backwards into the hopper for bulk – combined with the hydraulic 45° tilting of the container, this system is the most advanced, versatile, high-capacity system available today. Featuring sorting units which carry the bags downstream to the cutting unit, this system can accept up to two containers per hour. A special belt conveyor fitted beneath the shutter conveyors managing the bags collects any beans falling out of the bags, thereby ensuring virtually zero loss of product throughout the entire intake process. The bulk discharge unit is equipped with a dust aspiration system and safety panels that rise into place as soon as unloading starts.
Helping customers deal with in-house cleaning and sorting
Growing costs related to ready-cleaned coffee beans and an increasing presence of impurities in green coffee have led companies to evaluate in-house treatment options. Further issues concerning ethical sourcing and the quality offered by single-origin products fuel the demand for green coffee cleaning and sorting systems, for medium and large roasting factories. The fewer the impurities there are, the greater the value of the end product. Companies are therefore seeing how vital it is to take control over the in-house treatment options and technologies in order to ensure constant raw product quality.
Built to suit each customer, in line with their preferences on coffee reception and handling, IMA Coffee Petroncini developed the broadest range of tailor-made solutions for the reception and cleaning stages, making sure gentle and hygienic treatments are the bottom line right from the start in order to avoid any damage, product loss and contamination, according to hygienic design specifications.
Handling and conveying systems to optimize productivity
No one appreciates downtime, so any conveying issues and handling requirements are treated as key factors affecting a plant’s productivity. The IMA Coffee Petroncini engineering department devotes much attention to ensuring maximum efficiency connecting one process to another in the processing facility, even though conveying itself does not itself directly add value to the coffee. Appropriate conveying solutions are crucial to safeguard product integrity and optimize productivity and it can guarantee the highest preservation of the quality of the product, avoiding any product contamination thanks to the hygienic design specifications. Petroncini’s solutions include mechanical and pneumatic conveying equipment in pression or in suction, bucket elevators, disk and tubular drag conveyors, chain conveyors. Each solution is designed to suit the plant.
How flexible storage solutions make life easier
Green coffee storage solutions need to be flexible and should consider how many coffee origins will be used during production, and what the desired storage time in green silos or in the warehouse should be. This will also always depend on the available storage space. IMA Coffee Petroncini supplies highly flexible solutions for both indoor and outdoor storage depending on the facility space available. To adapt best, square-shaped, polygonal, or circular solutions are possible.
Petroncini’s cutting-edge batch-weighing device can be installed beneath the silos making it possible to accurately dose the green coffee blend or single-origin coffee ready to be sent to the roaster. Despite the visible space-saving compared to standard valves, the special dosing valves applied to Petroncini weighing system enables high-quantity dosing. This optimizes dosing times and ensures the highest precision of the batch. The capacity of the batch weighing system should be equal or greater than the roaster capacity. The determined weight will be recorded and used for calculating the roasting yield.
Why IMA Coffee Petroncini is a step ahead
Coffee is as much an art as it is a science and Petroncini blends both the engineering skills and experience with the sensibility that is a key ingredient in this sector. Understanding a coffee processing plant and the goals of a customer are just the first step towards solutions which evolve and improve thanks to the company’s commitment and expertise.
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