Miller Magazine Issue: 147 March 2022

75 COVER STORY MILLER / march 2022 at all levels of a company from board member to op- erator. It gives oversight of a whole plant or individual machines by feeding real-time data into Bühler Insights relating to machine utility compared to its usage at full capacity. Data feeds monitor availability, performance and quality across plant production lines. This data can then be distilled into a key performance indicator that gives an instant indication of machine integrity. For larger producers this high-level overview also allows managers to compare between plant efficiencies over time to see where there may be production shortfalls. Temperature Vibration Management Service Aimed specifically at the milling sec- tor this service is able to monitor both the temperature and vibration of the roller that grinds the grains to produce flour. Too high a temperature at any point in the roller can lead to quali- ty degradation. Algorithms also alert the operator to a potential problem and what action should be taken to address a temperature imbalance across the roller or to reduce wasteful energy consumption. Before using the Temperature & Vibration Management Service millers could easily be unaware of a significant failing taking place at the heart of their milling process. ISorter Monitoring System Designed to remove defective food from product such as coffee, grains or nuts by color, texture and shape or to recognize a piece of foreign material, Bühler’s range of optical sorting solutions combine very high-quality cam- era and lighting technology with machine learning soft- ware. Accuracy and sorting speed are critical in the food business and Bühler machines are able to sort 30,000 to 40,000 grains a second highly accurately. In the past the efficacy of the sorting process could only be judged after the event by the purity of the end product. However, in recent years these sorting machines have been designed to link into digital technology platforms such as Bühler Insights and plant automation systems. Sorting data can now be collected, stored, analyzed and displayed in real time on customized dashboards. Sorter Insights is able to report on a client’s customized KPIs through Bühler Insights while the Bühler SortControl solution allows the customer to connect control all their sorters centrally. Continuous monitoring means early detection of op- erational issues or machine wear to avoid critical down- time. Alarms can be set when sorting targets are not being met or spikes in sorting performance, that in the past could lead to high rated of wastage, can be ironed out as soon as they occur. By continuously monitoring what is being ejected it is possible to quickly detect ab- normal ejection patterns. Digital oversight of the sorter’s operating mode makes sure it has been properly set up to eject the right material for a specific product through- put. Bühler digital solutions combined with our indus- try expertise improve efficiency, quality, and traceability enabling operators, managers and owners to improve performance and achieve higher returns on investment. PastaSense Pasta production is a complex process involving tight controls over variables such as protein, ash and water content along with color and drying parameters. Tradi- tionally this has been a labor-intensive process requiring strict controls and so is ideally suited to digitalization. Bühler PastaSense allows the producer to see in real time