Small, Dark and Strong

Coverstory Small, dark and strong ... ... or with milk and sugar? No matter whether it is drunk as Turkish mocha, espresso, cappuccino or café au lait – coffee travels a long way from the plantation to the cup. Pneumatics accompanies it on its journey and helps pack and seal this “brown gold” into airtight packets. 4 Coffee is cultivated today in more than 50 countries in the world’s tropical and sub-tropical regions. Raw coffee grows on the branches of the coffee plant family, which can grow up to 10 m high. The fruit of these plants contains two kernels which are the coffee beans. The main species are arabi- ca and robusta. Its natural propa- gation area is in the south-western highlands of Ethiopia. Here, it flourishes as undergrowth in cool shady woods at altitudes of 1,300 to 1,800 m above sea level. Coffee plants like a balanced climate as Perfect handling: Air is extracted from the cans and replaced by inert gas. www.illy.com far as possible, without too much The cans are then sealed with plastic lids. sun or heat. After the harvest ... and quality. During the roasting in, they use aluminium cans or ... the coffee fruits are not yet fit for process, the coffee beans are sub- flexible foil vacuum packs. Provided human consumption, nor are they jected to dry heat at normal atmos- that these vacuum packs remain capable of being kept for any length pheric pressure. This causes the undamaged, the stimulating drink of time or transported. In order to water contained in the beans to which they contain can be stored produce coffee which is fit to be evaporate, while carbon dioxide for up to 18 months. Common sold, the entire casing surrounding and carbon monoxide diffuse out of forms include packs at atmospher- the beans must be removed. There the bean cells. This makes it nec- ic pressure, vacuum packs and then follow numerous cleaning essary to equip coffee packs with gas-filled vacuum packs. Oxygen is and sorting operations until the valves which allow these gases to excluded from the packs either by coffee is finally ready for market. escape. More about this later. evacuation or by replacing the oxygen in normal air by an inert gas Depending on the desired flavour The packaging is the key (nitrogen), since the greatest ene- and aroma required in a coffee Coffee roasters pack their roasted mies of coffee as an aromatic drink blend, coffee roasters mix together coffee either as whole beans or as are oxygen and humidity. coffees of different origins, types ground coffee. To keep the aroma One of the true masters ... ... of Italian espresso is Illy of Tri- este. In 1935, company founder Francesco Illy di Illetta developed the archetypal “Macchina Espres- so”. The espresso machine used until the 1930s used the steam of their water boilers to generate the pressure to extract the coffee aroma from the ground coffee beans. Instead of steam, Illy used compressed air. In the 21st century, Illy is still working with compressed air – to produce the aluminium cans with the red logo which are the compa- Illeta espresso machines were working with compressed air as ny’s emblem and for the critical early as 1935. Coverstory operation of sealing the cans. In www.goglio.it these cans, “Illycaffè” remains for months just as fresh as immediate- ly after roasting and packing. “Pressure packaging” is the key note phrase: Illy fills the coffee beans into absolutely airtight metal containers, extracts the air and replaces this by inert gas at low pressure (nitrogen and carbon dioxide). The packs are then sealed The fres-co® system: Shaping flexible plas- airtight. Held under pressure, the tic packaging in one processing phase aromatics in the beans cannot escape. Coffee packed and stored in this way is still fresh after three years. automation components are used, such as short-stroke cylinders and But one thing at a time: The roast- grippers for holding, motion and ing plant, which processes 70 feed functions. The most interest- tonnes of coffee beans every day ing use of compressed air, how- in its roasting drums, has its own ever, is a machine which extracts mechanical engineering depart- the air from cans, replaces this ment. This department designs with inert gas and then seals the and builds all the modules for the cans with a plastic lid. A DNC stan- machines used to weld the compa- dard cylinder ensures an even ny’s patented 3 kg white-metal replacement of air by gas. Follow- cans and for most of the machines ing this, a handling module places used to fill and seal the cans. a plastic lid on the open top of the can and seals this. The lids are fed Automated with compressed air by a DSL swivel/linear unit. This As illustrated by the example of drive provides both a linear and a Illetta, compressed air plays its swivel motion in a single unit. An part in improving the process of HGD three-point gripper removes coffee production. Even at the can each lid from the feed system, manufacturing stage, many which is driven towards the can by Festo components on the Illy machine DNC standard cylinders DSL linear/swivel units HGD three-point grippers DRQD rotary drives It is not only the samba … ... which has made Brazil famous. On the international coffee market, too, this South American country plays a major role – and not only as an exporter of ”brown gold” but also as a leading manufacturer of machines for coffee processing. With a 55% share of its home market, Metalúrgica a DRQD rotary drive and places the after all, offer the greatest possible Leogap of Curitiba is the clear leader in the field of lid on the open top of the can. number of individual customer coffee grinding and roasting. The flagship of this Each of these stations is capable solutions and the highest cost- company's product range is the fully-automatic of sealing 3,000 cans per day. effectiveness, being very light and “Turbo Roaster”, which is able to carry out 14 to capable of high-density filling. 18 roasting operations per hour. It operates with- These automated machines allow out smoke or odours and thus meets the most the espresso manufacturer to Flexibility is the key stringent environmental standards. Once again, maintain and constantly improve Goglio, located close to Milan, we find “Pneumatics inside”, since Leogap works his outstanding quality standard. develops not only individual cus- with the HACCP philosophy (Hazard Analysis Criti- tomer foil packaging solutions but cal Control Point). The highest quality in the world also the necessary packaging This demands maximum protection against con- This is the aim of the coffee-roast- machines. F. Gaviña & Sons recent- tamination – protection which pneumatics is able ing company F. Gaviña & Sons of ly commissioned several new to deliver. Examples of variant S6 of the DNC Vernon, California, who have great packaging lines supplied by Goglio. cylinder, able to withstand high temperatures, are plans for expansion in the North In a single processing step, it is installed in the interior of the roasting machine. American market. The company possible to produce packaging in Their task is to open and close the doors through soon realised that they could win various shapes and sizes, with which the coffee beans exit from the roasting market share in this tough environ- individual customer printing, spe- phase. Also on board are CPV14 valve terminals ment only by using highly-auto- cialised finishes and functions with multi-pin connectors to control the cylinders mated packaging machines and such as the fitting of one-way gas and process valves which guide the coffee beans high-quality foil packaging. In its vents and the “Easy Open” system during the roasting process. desire to minimise costs in its which allows the packs to be packaging process, it has therefore opened without scissors and re- www.leogap.com.br/eng turned to the fres-co® system, the sealed using a tin tie, zipper or international brand name for Goglio sticker. The aim of this comprehen- foil packaging and packaging sive range of products is to be able machines. to offer end customers a product which can easily be recognised on White-metal cans are not the only the supermarket shelf and has an way of keeping coffee fresh. Many attractive design which encourages coffee roasting houses prefer the consumers to buy. advantages of flexible foil packs, which can be shaped and filled at 120 packs a minute high speed on automated produc- The packaging machine is loaded tion lines. These flexible foil packs, with foil film on reels, which is Festo components on the Goglio machine DNC standard cylinders ADVU compact cylinders DSNU standard cylinders CPV valve terminals Coverstory Automatic coffee packaging machines ... unwound automatically by the equipment is required to keep up machine rollers and fitted with with this pace. ... are a speciality of Lombardy, the region around Milan. one-way gas vents. DNCB cylinders Comunetti Romano is one of the companies which drive the rollers in the desired way Dosing stations fill the shaped design and build fully- and semi-automatic coffee and are robust and dependable. packs with coffee, while at a further packaging machines. Their customers are small and An ADVU compact cylinder presses station a vacuum is generated in medium-sized coffee roasters all over the world – the plastic valve against the foil the packs, oxygen is replaced by from Brazil to South Africa, and from Malaysia to New and welds it thermally to this.

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