OAL News
OAL secures £60,000 for APRIL™ robot development
We are pleased to announce we have received a £60,000 Agri-Tech Growth Grant for the development of our robotic food processing system, APRIL™. The grant will be used to further develop APRIL™, our fully automated robotic food manufacturing cell that will boost production, efficiency and improve the quality of food produced.
“OAL is transforming the food manufacturing industry through their technology. The APRIL™ system will kick-start the industry’s move towards fully automated production lines, allowing food to be produced quicker, with less waste and greater precision.”
APRIL™ robot with food basket
A full size demonstration system is being built at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing part of the University Lincoln in Holbeach, Lincolnshire - come and learn more about the technology.
OAL sponsors Cambridgeshire Kidsafe Scheme
OAL is delighted to announce that we are a proud sponsor of Kidsafe, an organisation that actively commits to helping keep kids safe across the UK and EIRE. Unfortunately, kids’ safety is a major issue these days for everyone involved including parents and teachers. The philosophy at Kidsafe is to make children more aware of the dangers they face without destroying their sense of adventure, they believe the best approach is to make learning about safety fun.
“OAL is pleased to sponsor the Kidsafe School Safety Pack; it’s an important scheme and we like to get involved with and help local charities.”
OAL has sponsored the ‘School Safety Pack’ which is distributed to primary schools around the Cambridgeshire area, in order to educate them on the responsibility of their own safety. This pack includes a ‘Get Home Safely’ game which visually demonstrates the actions to take when faced with issues over their own safety, in a fun board game inspired layout.
OAL discusses APRIL™ at Future Food Horizons
Back in October, OAL travelled to Chester to take part in the Future Food Horizons Conference and introduce APRIL to industry and academic professionals. The conference, led by The University of Chester, was designed to tackle social challenges through food science and innovation. Jake Norman from OAL joined speakers from Innocent, Quorn, Muller and Sainsburys to discuss how they could turn their insights into food and innovation into a solution for social challenges.
Jake's presentation explains how OAL are using insights from the automotive industry to change food manufacturing with the introduction of APRIL™.
Ready to transform your facility? Get in touch with our experts today!
Harry Norman on the launch of APRIL
Harry Norman spoke to Food Bev Magazine back in October, about the introduction of APRIL, robotic food processing. We were invited to speak about innovation at the Next Generation Manufacturing conference at Gulfood Manufacturing in Dubai. Whilst at the show Darren Wood of FoodBev media caught up with OAL's Managing Director, Harry Norman, to discuss our new product.
“We are launching a new product into the market called APRIL which will revolutionise the way the front end processing of food factories is handled.”
Ready to take the next step towards the robotic revolution? Get in touch today!
APRIL™ wins Cambridge Open Innovation Food & FMCG Pitching Event
Our game-changing food processing innovation APRIL™ won over judges from Tesco, General Mills and Mars at the fourth Food & FMCG Innovation Pitching Event. The Cambridge University event took place at Food Matters Live In London, where we pitched APRIL (Automated Processing Robotic Ingredient Loading) to the esteemed group of judges. The judges recognised APRIL's ability to change the way we manufacture food by offering "chef-standard" food whilst significantly reducing production costs.
APRIL is the first of its kind and represents a step change in food processing; enabling parallel food processing and the emulation of a professional chef on an industrial scale.
APRIL will be available for demonstrations in early 2016 at our test centre at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing.