Can you imagine ice cream made entirely without cream, milk or eggs?
In 2017, Claus Sørensen, an entrepreneur and ice cream maker from Thisted, Denmark, began producing vegan ice cream made from rice and oats. The popularity of their plant-based ice cream has grown tremendously, leading to a need to automate the otherwise manual production in 2020.
"Consumers have responded incredibly well to our vegan ice cream range, and we reached a point where it was necessary to automate a number of processes to keep up with the enormous demand from the market," says Claus Sørensen, the owner of Ice Bakers. They now produce over 30,000 litres of vegan ice cream per week.
Eight tubs of ice cream at a time
The OMRON TM collaborative robot was implemented at the end of the production line and packages 10,000-12,000 ice cream tubs daily. The robot is equipped with a 3D-printed tool with vacuum suction that can lift eight tubs of ice cream at a time into a cardboard box, increasing the line capacity by 80%. Automating the process also relieves human resources for more complicated jobs.
The solution, implemented in 2021, was developed by Jysk Elteknik and Jens A. A/S in collaboration with Ice Bakers, using OMRON's TM series technology, including the Sysmac platform, PLC control, and other standard components.
According to Niels Jørn Poulsen, the CEO of Jysk Elteknik, "We know OMRON well, and it quickly became clear that OMRON's TM series was the obvious technology for such a solution."
Capacity limitations should not impede growth
OMRON's robot cell has a relatively high capacity, as Ice Bakers needed both high capacity and the flexibility that characterizes collaborative robots. "It is a good example of how as a food manufacturer, you sometimes get overtaken by reality when you invent a good product that consumers demand. And then there is often a need for automation solutions that make it possible to scale up production so that capacity does not become a hindrance to growth," says Torben Friløw, Channel Sales Manager at OMRON Industrial Automation Europe Denmark.
Looking into the future, the good collaboration between the companies involved has encouraged the manufacturers to automate even more processes in their production.
