Since 1947 Reading Bakery Systems has been building machines that bake, crisp and prepare some of the most recognizable snacks on supermarket shelves. Richard Watts, leader of the engineering design team at Reading, underscored three customer driven design issues that are pushing their machine designs forward. According to Richard, Safety, Energy Efficiency and Product Visualization are key areas of innovation for Reading.
According to Richard, “Safety has been our biggest driver for the last two or three years.” In fact, not too long ago Reading found themselves in a unique position. Mid-way through the design of one of their systems the company decided to make a bold change in the way they address machine safety.
The company took it upon themselves to adopt the EU’s rigid safety criteria. For Reading, this meant their current project and all others thereafter, would have to be rethought.
Bakery Systems faces conflicting requirements when it comes to safety in that any new design that protects hands and fingers may also make the machine more difficult to clean. Richard’s team was able to meet the goal of making an extremely safe, but ultimately easy to clean system by making some fundamental changes.
Formerly, Reading design engineers made extensive use of guards to protect operators from hazardous areas of a machine. To go beyond guarding, designers turned to other aspects of their machines to improve overall safety. Gaps between conveyor belts and other systems were tightened, for example, and rollers were shielded.
In the end Reading’s new approach to safety delivered on their goal to build a safer, yet cleanable baking system. For potential customers this new safety paradigm meant that employees operate in a much safer environment with reduced downtime from machine stoppages and a reduction in incidents requiring medical attention.
Reduced Energy Costs Drive Competitiveness
To deliver a more energy-efficient product, Reading’s designers began implementing high-efficiency motors across the board. Once in place, Reading engineers saw a system-wide 3-5% decrease in energy.
But that’s not the end of the story. “Often high efficiency motors are utilized at a torque level that isn’t achieving their name plate… That leads to a lot of energy being thrown away.” said Richard. To ensure that systems hum away at their optimal pace, Reading’s engineers make painstaking efforts to tune each motor to reach its full potential.
In addition to the mechanical changes that Reading made to reduce energy consumption, the company has also been keen to mitigate energy waste. In Reading’s baking systems, energy loss is reduced by recapturing and recirculating the heat that would otherwise be lost by a machine’s oven system. Vent hoods in critical areas capture as much lost heat as possible. Once captured, the lost heat is recirculated into the system making the entire machine more effective.
Product Visualization Educates Customers
One of Reading’s more valuable innovations has been its ability to easily share its complex designs with customers and employees. While engineers are familiar with CAD, others from the “C-Suite” to the manufacturing floor need to know how and why a machine is built in a certain way. “CAD visualization is at the core of what we do” explained Rick. “But obviously CAD isn’t something that everyone at the company is going to use. Yet everyone in the company has valuable insight into the way a machine is designed.”
By sharing simplified CAD models through Siemen’s JT2GO software the entire company has a view into the design process. This tool allows design collaboration from all levels of the company, which in turn has fueled the innovation process.
Reading’s customers have also been brought into the design process through sharing of the company’s Solid Edge from Siemens PLM Software CAD files in this way. Gathering direct customer feedback on a design before it goes into production can slash manufacturing costs and speed up production times. With a client’s input at hand Reading’s engineers can tailor a system that conforms to the space, energy use or other demands that are unique to the client’s application.
In the end, the food production industry, like all other industries, is driven by innovation. The forces driving change in the bakery industry are not so different from others around the globe.
Embracing challenges brought on by customer demands can lead to innovative growth…with the right approach and tools any company can find new ways to innovate and meet customer needs.
To get the details directly from Mark Watson and Richard Watts, watch Current and Future Trends in Industrial Machine Design.
Note: Siemens has sponsored promotion of their design software solutions on ENGINEERING.com. They have no editorial input to this post - all opinions are mine.
Kyle Maxey
Images Courtesy of Reading Bakery Systems