PROBAT’s new Cx70 drum roaster has the best price-to-performance ratio on the market. Photo credit: PROBAT
Today’s coffee roasters face rising raw material prices, high production and energy costs, and fluctuating logistics rates. Such seemingly insurmountable obstacles make it nearly impossible for small- to medium-sized roasters and coffee suppliers to enter the market. However, PROBAT’s new Cx70 drum roaster offers classic industrial roasting reliability while meeting the modern demands for lower operating costs, higher efficiency, and flexible automation — making it easier for SME’s to succeed.
As the global market and innovation leader in coffee processing solutions, PROBAT understands what coffee enterprises need to thrive and grow amidst such challenging times. In an interview with STiR Coffee and Tea Media, PROBAT’s product manager, Mark Weimer, and CTO Digital PROBAT, Sebastian Fichthorn, discuss how the Cx70 builds on PROBAT’s long-standing engineering expertise while being fully redesigned for optimal performance and maximum technical complexity.
Reengineered for Cost Efficiency
“What we’re seeing in the market is an increasing view on costs, because globally, we’re all facing rising energy costs, and certainly in the field of coffee roasting, we’re experiencing higher raw material prices,” explains Weimer. “There are a lot of new, smaller regional coffee roaster suppliers that require more accessible machinery.”
The Cx70 offers industrial performance without paying for unnecessary options and is designed to be approximately a third more cost-effective per kilogram than comparable one-bag roasters. Its entry-level pricing is significantly lower than that of other machines in the 60-70kg class.
The Cx70 roasts approximately 350kg of coffee beans per hour, with a nominal batch capacity of 70kg, offering industrial performance without paying for unnecessary options. Photo credit: PROBAT
“It’s important to us, at PROBAT, to respond to the industry’s changing circumstances and growing needs,” says Weimer. “When we developed the Cx70, it was our goal to provide a new coffee roasting machine that meets those demands, especially in terms of cost.”
PROBAT’s design team started with a blank sheet of paper and evaluated every single component on the machine in terms of cost, “without compromising the key elements that PROBAT is known for, quality, reliability, user ergonomics, and efficiency,” explains Weimer.
While maintaining a strong focus on PROBAT’s core values, the Cx70 also meets customers’ needs at a much lower price. “We came to approximately 30% below the competitor's prices for comparable roasters in the market,” says Weimer.
Higher Throughput in a Familiar Format
With a nominal batch capacity of 70kg, the Cx70 can roast approximately 350kg of coffee beans an hour, or more depending on the recipe and roasting times. It’s designed for roasters looking to scale production without moving into fully continuous systems.
Weimer notes that the Cx70 is perfect for a growing roastery “maybe coming from the specialty segment, that needs to increase its total coffee production, as well as companies that want to focus on a higher level of automation and greater efficiency.”
Smart Automation — Not Over-Automation
To make the Cx70 more accessible to roasteries just starting out, the standard configuration has been set to a more basic level and is available in either manual/assisted or higher-automation configurations — allowing roasters to choose the level of process automation that matches their exact needs.
“Now we can reach roasteries that simply want to roast coffee, but the machine is configurable to also meet the higher demands of customers seeking advanced technology, the highest level of automation, and greater energy efficiency,” adds Weimer.
PROBAT’s industrial machine control software, ProCS M, addresses the growing demand for AI technical integration. “The Cx70 comes with ProCS M, PROBAT’s tailor-made, web-based control system and user interface available across our entire product portfolio,” explains Fichthorn.
ProCS M offers a wide level of flexibility, allowing the Cx70 to run as a semiautomatic or fully automatic system. The operators can decide how much they themselves want to control or let the system control operations. “So it's very scalable and flexible,” adds Fichthorn.
Highly configurable but deliberately modular — customers only pay for the Cx70 features they actually need. Photo credit: PROBAT
The Reflex roasting feature allows the roaster to directly see how the machine is operating. “The roaster can set their target profile, and the current profile runs against it,” says Fichthorn. “The system automatically shows if there are deviations, and the control system immediately adjusts the necessary parameters.”
For roasters seeking more hands-on control, the advanced features can be disabled, and the machine can be operated manually.
Best Total Cost of Ownership
Designed to maximize overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), the Cx70 offers excellent total cost of ownership (TCO) rates. The all-electric roasting option, zero pneumatics, and optional partial exhaust air circulation all contribute to lower energy consumption.
“From my point of view, the Cx70 is engineered for performance and designed for profit, with the best price-to-performance ratio on the market,” says Weimer.
An advanced heat recovery system recirculates emissions and reuses the thermal energy that would otherwise be exhausted into the atmosphere, reducing energy costs by 20%.
A highly efficient heat recovery system reduces energy costs by 20%. Photo credit: PROBAT
“When we're talking about emission reduction, we implemented highly efficient catalyzers to be ready for the global demand,” adds Weimer. “There, we can configure the catalyzer to meet regional and country-specific requirements to reduce emissions.”
The Cx70 is highly configurable but deliberately modular — customers pay only for the features they actually need. By enabling lower capital expenditure (CapEx) and delivering reliability and proven PROBAT quality, the customer also profits from low operating expenses (OpEx) and, in the end, the Cx70 delivers an unbeatable price-to-performance ratio, “including return on investment,” adds Weimer. “This is the core benefit of the Cx70.”
Designed to Last
The new-generation Cx70 drum roaster represents pragmatic industrial roasting: fewer compromises and unnecessary features, and a sharper focus on efficiency, reliability, and profitability — without abandoning roast quality or process transparency. “As our customers’ needs evolve, and their businesses expand, the Cx70 is designed to grow and adapt with them for decades to come.”
The new Cx70 debuts at Hotelex in Shanghai, March 30-April 2, 2026. Visit PROBAT at Booth C22 in Hall 2.2 for live demonstrations and more information.