Tetra Pak and Rockwell Automation Inc. announced a strategic collaboration in 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 manufactured in a sustainable and cost-effective manner in demand-driven product environments.
Initially conducted in the fields of evaporation and spray drying, this collaboration gave rise to Tetra Pak's new Powder Plant Booster solution, which will be combined with Rockwell Automation's Pavilion8 and PlantPAx Model Predictive Control (MPC) solutions.
The combination of Tetra Pak's expertise in food applications and Rockwell Automation's cutting-edge digital technology will help manufacturers scale their production to demand more quickly and at an optimized cost.
Rockwell Automation's Pavilion8 predictive control applications bring the following benefits to the food industry: reduced product quality variability by up to 60%, reduced off-specification 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 optimally.
Fred Griemsmann, Vice President Cheese & Powder Systems, Tetra Pak, said: "Today, the agri-food industry demands an unprecedented level of agility from producers. In other words, we must be prepared 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 loss of quality, productivity or production. This unparalleled collaboration with Rockwell Automation is the foundation on which this capability rests. »
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-old relationship and to collaborate with Tetra Pak, a company that shares our vision that a deep understanding of customers and improving their productivity opportunities generates value. We are confident that sharing customer information, combined with the expertise of technology and our fields, will bring strong results to the industry focused on value creation. »
This business collaboration shows how pooling expertise can help clients achieve major economic goals, even on a global scale. Tetra Pak is now able to offer users of its evaporation and spray drying products advanced process control (APC) and predictive model control (MPC) solutions that have demonstrated their qualities around the world.
Together with Pavilion8 software, Tetra Pak's Powder Plant Booster solution provides a platform for modeling, advanced control and process optimization that can be integrated with any control system to continuously provide advanced diagnostic and control information in real time. To do this, this solution adds a layer of intelligence to basic automation systems, which relies on built-in performance metrics to help industrial sites meet multiple business goals simultaneously.