Customer

• „TipTop Ice Cream (Fonterra Brands Ltd) „
• Location: Auckland, New Zealand „ Industry
• Food & Beverage „ Implementation: 2011

Application

Tip Top is New Zealand’s largest supplier of frozen confectionery. The factory produces around 120,000 to 150,000 litres of product each day and is constantly looking to improve processes to boost efficiencies. In ice cream production, dry powder is mixed with wet ingredients in exact quantities to ensure consistent flavour and texture. If both components become intermingled prior to the mixing process, or if the ingredients are added inconsistently due to human error, quality problems and potential delays can be a direct consequence.

To reduce its susceptibility to such production errors, Tip Top turned to NZ firm Powder Projects as a principal contractor, with the task to design a sophisticated and reliable production process. Basler’s New Zealand distributor ControlVision in turn was commissioned to design the vision system to be integrated into Powder Projects’ overall solution.

Solution and Benefits

In the newly designed process, dry and wet ingredient areas are separated. The dry area was elevated to a higher level, while wet ingredients were kept at a lower level. From above the dry ingredient conveyor a Basler scout camera captures images of the powder bags. Two banks of white fluorescent lights were mounted above the camera to provide adequate illumination.