Miller Magazine Issue: 132 December 2020

45 NEWS MILLER / december 2020 In-line grain analysis and other innovative projects for mills and pasta factories RAM Elettronica (http://www.ramelettronica.it/en/), has been a reference company for the automation of mills and pasta factories worldwide since 1974, here are some of the next new products that will be on the market soon. RAM Elettronica, as leader, together with a team of rese- archers from the University of Foggia, experts in Food Tech- nology, and technology partner Rina Consulting, is experi- menting with the prototyping of an automatic in-line grain control system. The project in question is entitled "Automatic Grain Control System" and bears the acronym S.A.Con.Gra. The project seeks to offer a solution that meets the nee- ds of customers, with particular reference to what concer- ns industrial automation increasingly pushed in the pers- pective of the IoT paradigm, the driver of Industry 4.0. The structure and composition of the grain are determi- ning factors for its use in the industrial processes of mil- ling, baking, pasta making, malting and beer production. For this reason, the need is to define innovative techno- logical solutions capable of identifying the quality of the raw material used for subsequent industrial processes, gu- aranteeing its traceability and food safety aspects. There- fore, the objective of the project is to propose a non-dest- ructive system, fast and capable of an on-line screening of the grains to define which is their best use. The proposed solution is based on the use of FT-NIR spectroscopy, which will allow to determine the vis- co-elastographic parameters of the flour directly from the grain, which are responsible of the finished product properties. Vibrational NIR spectroscopy has turned out to be the winning key of the design. In fact, by means of absorption spectra relating to the bonds of functional groups present in the protein structure of the grain, it al- lows to evaluate the protein composition and secondary structure of gluten proteins, which can be associated with functionality of the finished product both from a techno- logical and an organoleptic point of view. The analysis and understanding of the needs expressed by the final user, is another fundamental and decisive as- pect for the S.A.Con.Gra project. RAM Elettronica mission is based on “Innovation”, S.A. Con.Gra is not the only innovative project. Currently the Italian company is involved in several innovation projects, granted by Puglia Region. In “PIA Program”, “RAM - Effi- ciency Supervisor”, an Advanced Manufacturing System, is developed in order to monitor and control the producti- on life cycle of milling and pasta making. The results are: an intelligent solution, based on integrated sensors and machine learning technics, able to optimize resources’ consumption (e.g. energy, water) in mill plant; a system able to detect moisture in pasta during production and support decision making in drying process. Then, in “INNOAID Program”, RAM is developing two innovative solutions for mill and pasta plants: an innova- tive vision system for short pasta quality control (based on advanced image process algorithms and able to detect pasta imperfections and to discard it automatically, wit- hout production interferences) and a predictive mainte- nance solution, able to monitor temperature of strategic electrical assets (like panels). RAM technical dept. is ready to support your business and work alongside with people that believe in innovation as the only way to succeed.