Tetra Pak and Rockwell Automation Inc. have announced a strategic collaboration in the field of Cheese & Powder solutions. This combined expertise will generate data and technologies to reduce variability and improve quality consistency, helping to ensure that finished products are produced in a sustainable, cost-effective approach to demand-driven product environments.
Initially focusing on evaporation and spray drying, this collaboration has given rise to Tetra Pak's new Powder Plant Booster solution, which will be combined with Model Predictive Control (MPC) solutions. Pavilion8 and PlantPAx from Rockwell Automation.
The combination of Tetra Pak's expertise in food applications and Rockwell Automation's cutting-edge digital technology will help manufacturers tailor their production to demand faster and more cost-effectively.
Rockwell Automation's Pavilion8 predictive control applications provide the food industry with the following benefits: reduction of product quality variability by up to 60 %, reduction of out-of-spec products by up to 75 %, increased production by up to 9 %, and reduced energy consumption per unit of product by up to 9 %. Producers can thus optimize their operations and maintain their competitiveness, while managing variations in market demand in an optimal way.
Fred Griemsmann, Vice President Cheese & Powder Systems, Tetra Pak, said: " Today's food industry demands an unprecedented level of agility from producers. In other words, we have to be ready to offer our customers advanced process control technology that is both flexible and precise. Customers can benefit from our expertise in food applications, access production data in real time, and adapt their process variables according to their requirements - without any loss of quality, productivity or output. This unrivalled collaboration with Rockwell Automation is the foundation on which this capability is built. "
Matthew Fordenwalt, vice president and general manager of Rockwell Automation's Systems and Solutions business, said: " Rockwell Automation is delighted to continue a 35-year relationship and to collaborate with Tetra Pak, a company that shares our vision that deep understanding of customers and improving their productivity opportunities generate value. We are convinced that sharing customer information, combined with our technology and domain expertise, will bring the industry strong results focused on value creation. "
This commercial collaboration shows how pooling expertise can help customers achieve major economic objectives, even on a global scale. Tetra Pak is now in a position to offer users of its evaporation and spray-drying products advanced process control (APC) and model predictive control (MPC) solutions that have proved their worth all over the world.
Together with Pavilion8 software, Tetra Pak's Powder Plant Booster solution provides a modeling, advanced control and process optimization platform that can be integrated with any control system to continuously provide real-time diagnostic and advanced control information. This is achieved by adding a layer of intelligence to core automation systems, based on integrated performance metrics, to help industrial sites meet multiple business objectives simultaneously.