Industry pain point: 1 gram error behind the tens of millions of losses
On the production line of Café Heredia workshop in Chile, workers used a mallet to knock on the packaging bag to eliminate coffee powder agglomeration-this primitive operation resulted in a daily loss rate of up to 8%. Powdered materials are very easy to absorb moisture and form lumps in coastal areas of South America with humidity exceeding 70%. Traditional photoelectric sensors are difficult to accurately identify, and the weighing error fluctuation is often above ±2g. "It's like sifting flour with a fishing net, and the key details are lost." Ply-Pack's R&D director said in a technical seminar, "What we need is a monitoring system that can 'sense' texture changes."
Technical breakthrough: three-layer sensor matrix drives dynamic calibration
In view of the physical characteristics of coffee powder, the Ply-Pack technical team has developed the industry's first coffee powder agglomeration monitoring technology. Its core innovation lies in:
- Multi-dimensional data acquisition
- Microwave density sensor: penetrating scanning material compactness
- High frame rate visual module: capture particle size distribution changes (> 0.5mm particles are automatically marked)
- Piezoelectric force feedback belt: real-time monitoring of powder flow resistance
- Dynamic weighing calibration system
When the risk of agglomeration is detected, the equipment automatically triggers a triple compensation mechanism:
- Vibration screening module high frequency operation (adjustable 10-50Hz)
- Airflow auxiliary device blows away surface floating powder
- Weighing sensor starts millisecond dynamic zeroing
In the actual test of Chilean customers, the system stabilized the average error of 3kg packaging at ±0.8g, which is equivalent to a 3-fold increase in the industry average accuracy.
Environmental adaptation: Let smart devices understand the breath of South America
The unique salt spray corrosion and temperature difference between day and night along the coast of South America once caused a certain international brand of sensors to collectively fail within three months. Ply-Pack's "South American high humidity environment adaptation" solution includes:
- Nano-hydrophobic coating on the sensor surface to reduce water film interference
- Developed self-drying circuit warehouse, internal humidity is always ≤40%RH
- Vibration motor adopts IP67 protection level to adapt to rainy season workshop environment
"This system can even distinguish the difference in water content of coffee powder in the Andes Mountains and coastal plains." Chilean customers reported that "the equipment has been in production for 180 days, and the number of fault alarms is zero."
Value extension: Technology radiation from single products to ecology
The "modular packaging equipment" built based on this technology has now derived more application scenarios:
- Cocoa powder packaging line: Identify density anomalies caused by frosting crystallization
- Mate tea packaging equipment: Detect the imbalance of stem and leaf ratio
- Chili powder packaging machine: Red light spectrum to identify moldy particles
Ply-Pack recently reached a cooperation with the National Agricultural University of Peru to use agglomeration monitoring data for coffee bean storage research. "These real-time production data are more convincing than laboratory simulations." The project leader said.
