Automated dessert decorator creates precision designs for bakeries
17/10/2022 Trio Motion Technology Ltd
It’s nearly a thousand miles from Columbus, Ohio, to NASA’s Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida, and space rockets couldn’t seem further away from cake decorating machines. But in the 2000’s, a design engineer, based in Columbus, was working on a project to develop a 3D food printer system that could personalise food for astronauts during long-duration space missions. The core technology was a success, and in 2016, responding to commercial demand for 3D food printing in the bakery industry, the founders set up BeeHex as a commercial operation.
The concept involved the development of a machine that would speed up and increase the precision of dessert decoration in 3D. Typically, more intricate decoration was a time intensive manual skill, whereas the existing automated machines available would only be able to provide basic designs. Instead, BeeHex’s concept would allow bakeries of all sizes to decorate biscuits, cookies, pastries, and cakes, quickly and accurately, in low and high volume. Importantly, it would also give bakeries the flexibility to quickly integrate new designs of decoration, including the ability to personalise, in limited runs through to a batch of thousands of cakes at a time if required.
To move the proof of concept to an industrial scale, BeeHex required a motion control capability for 12 nozzles that would deliver the icing, moving in three dimensions, integrated within a three-axis XYZ gantry. The system needed the accuracy to create detailed decoration, including fine weight text, but it also had to operate at speed in order to maximise throughput. To enable BeeHex’s engineers to quickly develop new features and functionality for end users, the system also had to be simple and fast to programme.
Partnering with Trio Motion Technology, BeeHex has developed a machine that can decorate up to 720 cookies per hour, plus other dessert types, across a variety of icing styles. For more complex designs requiring multiple stages, several BeeHex machines can be conveyor-linked to create full production lines. This also enables higher production throughput, capable of decorating 15 cakes per minute or up to 10,000 cookies per hour.
Users create their decoration design with a PC and BeeHex’s graphic design software, including tools such as a digital pen that enables fine accuracy. BeeHex’s programme, written in Python, then communicates the design, according to attributes including pattern and colour, to the controller. This communication takes place via a dynamic link library, a custom collaboration that enables BeeHex’s engineers to work with their preferred programming language.
Trio’s MC508 controller then replicates the design at speed by coordinating motion via three stepper motor axes. In turn, the stepper axes coordinate the XYZ gantry that holds the decorating nozzles. The controller also provides I/O connectivity including overtravel limit sensors and E-stop safety, meaning that a PLC isn’t required.
Trio’s MC508 controller includes 64 bit precision register and an execution benchmark of 112 lines/ms over its axes. This enables the machine to recreate accurate designs at speed, with consistent repeatability. As a result, bakeries can achieve decoration quality and throughput that isn’t possible with a manual decoration line.
BeeHex has supplied its machines to bakeries large and small across the USA. Intended for daily operation within a rugged setting, the machines are highly durable and include an automated clean-in-place system.
As bakeries have been faced with the challenge of fluctuating workforce levels, demand for the machines has increased following the Covid pandemic. While they have enabled bakeries to reduce dependence on manual labour, automated dessert decoration has also reduced human contact with production, helping to decrease bacterial contamination.
“Through automated motion control, BeeHex has been able to raise hygiene, improving the quality of bakeries’ produce,” says Ed Novak, Trio Motion Technology. “Reacting to consumer demand, improved hygiene standards are an increasingly important requirement for supermarkets, as well as their suppliers.”
Print this articleFor more information, please contact:
Trio Motion Technology Ltd
Shannon Way
Ashchurch
Tewkesbury
Gloucestershire
GL20 8ND
Tel: 01684 292333
Email: uksalesteam@triomotion.com
Web: http://www.triomotion.uk/public/home.php
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