Projects & Process

OAL have a 25-year history of supplying turnkey material handling and processing projects to blue chip UK food manufacturers. Food manufacturers trust OAL to deliver liquid and dry material processing projects up to a value of £5 million where proven experience, design excellence, automation, quality and outstanding support are valued. This also includes Steam Infusion; OAL’s heating, mixing and homogenising disruptive technology that uses steam as the motive force.

OAL Connected

OAL Connected provides market-leading label and date code verification systems installed on over 1,200 packing lines, ensuring full compliance with retailer’s codes of practice. Once protected, food manufacturers can achieve fast payback using the OAL Connected modules to add OEE productivity measurement, connectivity to line equipment, QA checking, traceability and paperless recording.

APRIL Robotics

Our team are world leaders in using proven robotic equipment to provide next generation food manufacturing preparation and processing systems. The systems currently support dry weighing, A to B transport, blending and full processing kitchens. The APRIL™ robotic modules interconnect allowing users to start small with an initial investment of circa £50,000.

OAL designed, installed and automated a new dry material and liquid handling system comprised of silos, big bags and FIBC's to increase doughnut production to 50,000 per hour at market leading food manufacturer with a total project cost of c£870,000.
 

OAL has helped a market-leading supplier of organic dairy products to secure their brand with packaging line automation, ensuring compliance with major UK retailers codes of practice. The system includes label and date code verification (Autocoding) and expanded paperless quality and factory performance modules that have reduced unplanned downtime.

A leading Spanish ready meal manufacturer has switched to Steam Infusion cooking for its bechamel and dairy-based sauces. The market leader chose the Steam Infusion Vaction™ Pump for shorter cooking times, easy cleaning and improved product quality. Other outcomes included:

• Zero burn on and vessel fouling means up to 10 batches can be run one after another without full CIP.
• Rationalisation of bechamel sauce recipes to two superior sauces.
• Local integration in Spain by Raimaber Fluid Tech.

Wort boiling is a key stage in the brewing process and typically in a traditional setup, it accounts for up to 60% of the total energy demand of the brewery. The following white paper explains why brewers use Steam Infusion rather than traditional external wort boilers (EWB) to achieve:

1) Up to 40% savings in energy.
2) Zero burn on for easy cleaning and maintenance.
3) Improved consistency.
4) Up to 50% reduced cooking time.

Do you need to expand your soup, sauces and ready meals production? Or perhaps your company is facing growing pressure from governments to reduce fat, salt and sugar in products, but reformulating products has been an obstacle? Steam Infusion could be the answer for you!

Download our latest guide to help would-be buyers make the best possible purchasing decision in their steam infusion journey and learn how easy it is to join the revolution!

APRIL Eye Has Arrived...

Introducing APRIL Eye, the latest in Artificial Intelligence technology researched and developed to fully automate the date code verification process removing human error from a high-risk process in food factories. 

We all know health and safety is paramount in food manufacturing but how do we mitigate against the risks associated with manual ingredient handling?

Food manufacturers can now automate their dry ingredient handling and weighing with the APRIL™ Robotics Weighing Station.

That means no more musculoskeletal issues from manual handling and fast, efficient and consistent weighing.