How do you prefer to eat your noodles? As a sidedish, as a noodle main course with a delicious sauceor simply as a snack-to-go? People’s eating habitsseem to be changing in general. Consumers’ eatinghabits depend on many different factors. They oftenrefl ect current trends and the zeitgeist of the moment. For example, sustainable nutrition has been verypopular with many consumers for years. However,this does not necessarily imply a contradiction toquick and easy food preparation.
The results of the Trend ReportNutrition 2023, published by theFederal Centre for Nutrition incooperation with the nutrition networkNutrition Hub at the beginning of theyear, also confirm the change ineating habits: According to the report,more and more people are combininga healthy and sustainable diet with theuse of ready-made meals that can beprepared quickly and easily, so-calledconvenience food. What consumersalso value here, however, arewholesome and environmentallyfriendly ingredients as well asresource-saving and recyclablepackaging.
Demand for instant noodle dishesis on the rise
In line with this trend, the demand for instant noodle dishes is increasing enormously in many countries around the world. Food manufacturers are accordingly launching products on the market in which they process high-quality and sustainably produced ingredients and pack them in environmentally friendly cups. This is also the case with an international food company that combines the aspects of convenience and sustainability in a special way in an instant noodle product. For this product, the manufacturer combines pre-fried noodle nests with highquality vegetables, selected herbs and spices, and sometimes with a meatingredient, and offers them in a recyclable cup. Consumers only need to pour on hot water and can immediately enjoy a filling, inexpensive and wholesome meal. However, the creation of the finished product and, above all, the filling of the noodle cup with the individual ingredients, as well as the final sealing, are extremely complex. To ensure maximum productivity and economic efficiency, the entire process must be carried out at high speed and automated throughout. The high quality requirements of the product demand a great deal of competence and experience from the manufacturer of the packaging system. Dosomats from Waldner master the complicated sealing technology particularly well. This system precisely addresses the customer’s special requirements. In close cooperation with the customer, Dosomat experts have adapted it individually to the product at hand, the packaging and the corresponding filling process.
480 cups per minute
“The task is to fill pre-formed, deep-fried noodle cakes precisely into empty cups. These are first turned upside down and placed over the cakes,” says Adrian Herrmann, sales specialist at Waldner Dosomat, explaining the principle of the system. During the rotation of the entire package, the noodle cakes are inserted into the cup and further ingredients such as herbs, soup vegetables, spices, broth powder and, depending on the flavour, optional pieces of meat can be added. In addition, a sachet containing a seasoning liquid such as soy sauce is placed on top of the product before the filled cup is sealed airtight with an aluminium lid. Within this workflow, the Dosomat is capable of filling 480 cups per minute. “The high process speed presented us with enormous challenges. In order to precisely maintain the cycle time, the system has to process twelve cups at a time. This means that each individual process step must be completed within 1.5 seconds,” Herrmann explains. In addition, the engineers were confronted with further challenges. For example, the Dosomat is directly preceded by a machine that produces the noodle cakes. It was then necessary to integrate this continuous sequence into the work cycle of the Dosomat and to synchronise both machines perfectly with each other. Another challenge is to provide sufficient packaging material to maintain the fast cycle times. The solution was to optimise the handling of the material supply. This allows operators to manually feed larger stacks of cups to the line, creating a certain buffer time. This ensures that the required material is supplied quickly and in line with demand.
Efficient filling processes
In addition to the enormous speed,this also enables the filling process tobe highly efficient.
This is achieved,among other things, by the so-called“no-cup-no-fill principle”:
The systemdetects individual cups that do notmeet the required quality due tomaterial defects and automaticallyrejects them before filling. Thisprevents process disruptions andensures maximum overall equipmenteffectiveness (OEE). All work stationsof the Dosomat can be pulled out sothat they are freely accessible for repairand cleaning processes. In this way,maintenance times are reduced to aminimum despite the large dimensionsof the system (15 metres long andtwo metres wide), which in turnincreases efficiency and productivity.The complete production of thepackaging system – from theconception, development and creationof the system to the production of theindividual components and theconstruction of the switch cabinet andprogramming of the control system– takes place at the headquarters inWangen. The customer receives allservices from a single source andbenefits from the competent supportof the Waldner experts throughoutthe entire life cycle of the machine.Even if the further development ofhuman eating habits is not yetforeseeable - the demand for quickand easy to consume food is unlikelyto diminish. Our Dosomats are ready.
