OAL News
APRIL™ Robotic Weighing shortlisted for World Food Innovation Award
We are pleased to announce that our APRIL Robotics Weighing Station has been shortlisted for “Best Technology Innovation” in the World Food Innovations Award 2018.
We are pleased to announce that our APRIL™ Robotics Ingredient Handling system has been shortlisted for Best Technology Innovation in the World Food Innovations Award 2018.
It’s fantastic recognition of how much of an impact our highly innovative APRIL™ Robotic Ingredient Handling system has on the way the food industry handles and processes ingredients.
Weighing out powders is a manual repetitive task that is highly susceptible to human error. The APRIL™ Robotics Ingredient Handling system automates this task offering unrivalled accuracy and efficiency. The advanced torque force sensors within the collaborative robot allow us to weigh out ingredients to an accuracy of +/- 1g or 1% by weight every time, a level of accuracy unachievable by humans.
At OAL, we are passionate about using the very latest in innovative technological solutions, processes and applications to help sustain and secure the UK’s largest food manufacturing industry.
Customers have guided us with distinct requirements for each sector allowing each team to work as a focused fast moving group dedicated to their specific market. The OAL tradition of trust, fairness and investment in our people bonds our teams. We strive to keep our customers ahead and future-proofed by leading multiple R&D projects currently valued at £3.5 million aimed at developing tomorrow's tried and trusted.
Shortlisted for two awards in the first round of the Made in the UK Awards
We are pleased to announce that our APRIL Robotics Cooking Cell has been shortlisted in the first round of the “Made in the UK Awards” in the categories ‘Digital Engineering/Technology’ and ‘Manufacturing Innovation’’.
We’re pleased to announce that our APRIL™ Robotics Cooking Cell has been shortlisted in the first round of the Made in the UK Awards in the categories Digital Engineering/Technology and Manufacturing Innovation.
The APRIL™ Cooking Cell developed with the University of Lincoln at their National Centre for Food Manufacturing revolutionises the way we manufacture food. By combining advanced materials handling and processing technologies, APRIL™ can consistently emulate how chefs cook in a professional kitchen bringing restaurant standard food to our supermarket shelves.
She effortlessly moves pans around the factory without pumps and pipework to combine and process ingredients; heating, mixing and pouring soups, sauces and ready meals on an industrial scale. Using a pre-programmed schedule, APRIL™ can process multiple recipes at the same time to a consistent and accurate standard, without contamination.
APRIL™ moves away from traditional linear continuous production set-ups where high volume and limited flexibility impedes quality and consistency (due to pumps, pipework and large vessels). With an 80% smaller factory footprint, intelligent scheduling and automated modular processing system, APRIL™ increases flexibility, optimises productivity and improves efficiency in a safer and more hygienic environment.
This opens up opportunities for manufacturers to research and develop new products and extend shelf-life of products contributing to reducing food wastage.
“We are excited by the new thinking involved in the APRIL™ robotic chef approach. Modular robotics cells may transform food manufacturing kitchens, by breaking up processes in a different way, in doing so providing a step change in performance.”
As a company, we are passionate about revolutionising the way we manufacture food, helping to secure the future of the UK’s largest manufacturing industry through innovative technological solutions, processes and applications.
New £900k Robotic Ingredient Handling project
Did you know as much as 5% of a food manufacturer’s turnover is associated with the costs of raw material handling, weighing and preparation? That number is set to drop as engineers, food technologists and computer scientists, drawn from UK industry and academia, collaborate to fully automate the preparation and handling of raw materials.
Did you know as much as 5% of a food manufacturer’s turnover is associated with the costs of raw material handling, weighing and preparation? That number is set to drop as engineers, food technologists and computer scientists drawn from UK industry and academia collaborate to fully automate the preparation and handling of raw materials.
We're leading a major new industrial R&D project in collaboration with researchers from the University of Lincoln, UK, and English Provender Company, an award-winning producer of condiments, dressings and marinades. The collaboration is part-funded by a UK Government grant of almost £900,000 from Innovate UK through its Materials & Manufacturing research fund funding stream.
The project aims to address the unique complexity of food manufacturing ingredient variability. In a given day, food manufacturers can deal with over 200 different raw materials with different states (solid, liquid, frozen, ambient and chilled), packaging format (bag, sack, box and drum), allergens and handling difficulties. It’s this complexity that to date has led to high manning levels, waste and inefficiencies in the industry.
Deploying our suite of APRIL Robotics Material Handling modules as our toolset at the University of Lincoln’s National Centre for Food Manufacturing, the research team is exploring how to integrate robotic and automation solutions at each step of the production process. The research will examine how processes such as product handling and weighing can be streamlined and made more efficient through new robotic technologies.
“The ability to accurately and efficiently prepare, weigh and batch the complex combination of ingredients within our product portfolio really is the engine room of our production environments. The processes involved have a direct effect on food safety, product quality and factory efficiency. We believe that the use of increased automation and technology to provide enhanced control, accuracy and repeatability will have a massive positive effect on all three of these critical factors within this core business function.”
One of the APRIL Robotics technologies that will be used in the project is a micro-ingredient weighing station that uses a collaborative robot to weigh out free flowing and non-free flowing powdered ingredients to an accuracy of 1g. This technology was developed under a separate Innovate UK project between OAL and the University of Lincoln.
“Weighing out powders is a common task across the industry that presents accuracy and health and safety challenges when undertaken by people. By using a collaborative robot and smart algorithms from the University of Lincoln, we can quickly weigh out powders, to a recipe, to an accuracy of 1g with zero cross contamination. In this project, we’re working with EPC to map out their processes and crunch a year’s production data to analyse what the best solution is, looking at the potential for optimisation at each step.”
Robotic micro weighing removes the health & safety challenges associated with manual weighing
Mark Swainson, Deputy Head at the University of Lincoln's National Centre for Food Manufacturing (NCFM) is an expert in the field of industrial food processing technology. He will lead the research team which also includes specialists in robotics, automation and process control from the University of Lincoln’s School of Engineering.
“To unlock improved value, quality and sustainability, the food manufacturing sector needs a game-changing, innovative reinvention of its production processes. We want to push the practical and scientific boundaries of food process technologies, robotic materials’ handling, machine learning, and computer vision systems. The goal is to produce a full technological solution which provides proof that robotics and automation can be the catalyst for much-needed productivity gains in the food manufacturing industry.
The industry needs a step change. All the low hanging fruit has gone. This project is not about marginal gains, it is about identifying a game-changer that can turbocharge productivity in food manufacturing processes.”
If you would like to learn more about ingredient handling and preparation automation, get in touch with our experts today!
OAL to support Deafblind UK in 2018
In 2018, we'll be working with and supporting national sight and hearing loss charity, Deafblind UK to raise awareness and donations for people that suffer from sight and hearing damage.
In 2018, we'll be working with and supporting national sight and hearing loss charity, Deafblind UK to raise awareness and donations for people that suffer from sight and hearing damage.
Deafblind UK support people with sight and hearing loss to live the lives they want and helps to ensure deafblind people have the same rights, access and opportunities as others. They provide a wide range of direct support services and also support and educate external organisations as to how to help their own staff and customers with the challenges being both deaf and blind presents. The charity will be organising an information day at OAL's Peterborough site where they will demonstrate the impact of sight and hearing loss on everyday life to help raise awareness and increase understanding.
Jake pictured in green at the Great North Run 2016
Jake Norman to run the London Marathon for Deafblind UK
Jake Norman, OAL's Head of Sales, will be taking to the streets of London this April to run the London Marathon raising money for Deafblind UK.
“Deafblind UK is a hugely worthwhile charity and we’re excited about the opportunity to support them in any way we can. Even shutting your eyes and ears for just five minutes gives you a sense of the challenges people face. Imagine trying to go shopping, or cook dinner; the world would be a very scary place! So I’m going to push myself to the absolute limits in London for Deafblind UK!”
Christmas celebrations at the University of Lincoln
This year, OAL celebrated Christmas at our long-time strategic partner, the University of Lincoln. The whole OAL team visited the university’s new Sir Isaac Newton building on Friday, 8th of December for a day of learning, reflection and refreshment.
This year, OAL celebrated Christmas at the University of Lincoln, our long-term strategic partner. The whole OAL team visited the university’s new Sir Isaac Newton building on Friday 8 December for a day of learning, reflection and refreshment. The team had the opportunity to see the latest computer science, maths, physics and engineering developments, giving them an insight into how these facilities, equipment and technologies are used in our collaborative research and development projects.
We’ve been working with the University of Lincoln for five years on a number of projects. During our partnership, we have invested over £4.5 million into developments aimed at future-proofing the food manufacturing industry, with support from UK government funding.
Our successes include Steam Infusion cooking, developed and available for testing at the University’s prestigious National Centre of Food Manufacturing. This unique method provides food manufacturers with a faster, more controlled heating and mixing technology, using steam as the motive force.
And more recently, leading professors and researchers have helped develop the APRIL Robotics Ingredient Handling system, emulating and outperforming human weighing of powders.
The day included several presentations from university staff, a tour of the new facilities, and festive refreshments in the university foyer. Hearing from prominent professors – including Professor Stefanos Kollias, the founding professor of machine learning – was very inspiring for our team. The unique expertise and the state-of-the-art facilities have been essential to helping us develop forward-thinking solutions to industry challenges.
Not everyone at OAL is directly involved with these disruptive innovation projects. By bringing the whole team together, we were able to see first-hand the step change that these projects represent for the UK’s largest manufacturing industry. In addition to nurturing relationships within our teams, we were able to see how they have contributed to these successes.
“I really enjoyed the day; it was good to spend time with my colleagues and see what we’ve been doing with the University. I now get how what I do fits into the bigger picture.”
“This was a great day and we’d love to do it again. It was the perfect opportunity to share the work that we’ve done with the University and get the whole business involved.”