Tetra Pak and Rockwell Automation partner on data driven tech for cheese and powder solutions

15 Mar 2021 --- Tetra Pak and Rockwell Automation have formed a strategic partnership delivering data and technology to reduce variability and improve quality consistency in cheese and powder solutions. 

The venture will also ensure finished products are produced sustainably and cost-effectively within demand-driven manufacturing environments.

The collaboration is starting with Evaporation and Spray Drying, resulting in Tetra Pak’s new Powder Plant Booster solution being packaged with Rockwell Automation’s Model Predictive Control (MPC) and its Pavilion8 and PlantPAx MPC technology.

Improved agility
“The F&B industry now requires that producers have a level of agility never seen before. This means we must be ready to offer our customers advanced processing control technology that is both flexible and precise,” says Fred Griemsmann, VP Cheese and Powder Systems at Tetra Pak. 

“This collaboration enables us to maintain the connection with our customers and support them throughout the life cycle of the delivered equipment and obtain continued optimal performance as their needs evolve,” he tells PackagingInsights. 

The offering is unique to Tetra Pak, with the strategic business collaboration developing turnkey solutions, in that they have already been customized for this powder processing application, so that the systems are “ready to go,” he explains. 

Customers can leverage Tetra Pak’s food application expertise, have access to production data in real-time and adapt their process variables to match requirements – without any loss in quality, productivity or throughput. “Our collaboration with Rockwell Automation provides the foundation upon which this capability is based,” adds Griemsmann.

Resulting capabilities from the collaboration are set to improve quality consistency, enhance efficiency and reduce variability.Leading the pack
The combination of Tetra Pak’s food application expertise and Rockwell Automation’s digital technology will help producers adapt to fluctuating demand-driven manufacturing far more quickly and cost-effectively.

Pavilion8 driven applications have been shown to deliver possible product quality variability reductions of up to 60 percent, reductions in off-spec products up to 75 percent, improved throughputs up to 9 percent, and reductions in energy per unit of product up to 9 percent. 

The reductions allow producers to fully optimize their operations – helping them stay competitive while meeting changing market demands, the company’s note. 

“The F&B industry now requires that producers have a level of agility never seen before. This means we must be ready to offer our customers advanced processing control technology that is both flexible and precise,” says Griemsmann.

“Customers can leverage our food application expertise, have access to production data in real-time and adapt their process variables to match requirements – without any loss in quality, productivity, or throughput. This collaboration with Rockwell Automation provides the foundation upon which this capability is based.”

Matthew Fordenwalt, VP GM, Systems & Solutions at Rockwell Automation, adds: “We believe shared customer insights, coupled with technology and domain expertise, will deliver real value-focused outcomes to the industry.”

Global success
This business collaboration showcases how a combination of expertise can help customers achieve important business-critical goals, even on a global scale. 

Tetra Pak can now offer its Evaporation and Spray Drying customers proven Advanced Process Control and Model Predictive Control solutions that have demonstrated global success. 

The Powder Plant Booster solution – with complementary Pavilion8 software – is a process modeling, advanced control and optimization platform that integrates with any control system to continuously provide real-time insight, diagnostics and advanced management. 

The solution achieves this by delivering an intelligence layer on top of basic automation systems, which continuously drives plants toward addressing multiple business objectives due to its built-in performance metrics.

Edited by Elizabeth Green