Coffee Conveying
Handling coffee requires precision to maintain its delicate aroma throughout processing. Piab's advanced coffee conveying technology ensures the seamless transportation of green coffee, roasted beans, and ground coffee, preserving their unique characteristics at every stage. Our innovative conveyors streamline operations for both small-scale and large-scale coffee production, offering efficient automation solutions.
Coffee conveying at Minges
The Minges coffee roastery uses Piab vacuum conveyors to preserve the aroma of their products and increase productivity and efficiency at the same time. The Piab coffee conveyors fill their packaging machine and capsule filling machine, while suction cups are used to move the finished pods and erect the packing boxes.
Charging equipment with coffee
Filling the packaging line with coffee beans or ground coffee has never been easier. Piab's coffee conveying technology ensures a low-maintenance alternative with a small footprint to overcome vertical lifts of materials while preserving product aroma. Coffee beans stay intact throughout the process, ensuring that ground coffee reaches its destination without contamination.
The importance of ergonomics
Effective coffee handling is crucial to prevent physical strain and injury among workers. Manual handling of coffee poses risks to productivity and quality due to the potential for errors and inefficiencies. Additionally, manual handling can be time-consuming and labor-intensive and may lead to contamination, as workers may inadvertently introduce foreign objects or bacteria into the coffee during the handling process. Utilizing advanced coffee conveying technology and conveyors optimized for coffee handling can mitigate these risks and ensure a smooth and efficient coffee conveying system.
Conveying of coffee - a delicate process
Micro roasteries and large-scale industrial facilities share the challenge of transferring coffee from one process step to another. Yet, it is very common to use practices that may affect product quality negatively. Choosing the right method for coffee conveying is crucial to preserve the aroma of the coffee, and it is often required to prevent coffee from interacting with atmospheric air. Piab vacuum coffee conveyors operate both in semi-closed systems using atmospheric air and in closed loops with nitrogen gas replacing oxygen.
Vacuum conveying is thought to damage the beans - which is easily avoided with our proprietary piGENTLE® technology that uses dense phase conveying.
Using vacuum conveyors may also solve ergonomic issues in the facility by avoiding manual coffee handling and overcoming vertical lifts with flexible hoses. The lack of moving parts contributes to minimal maintenance needs and easy equipment cleaning.
Piab coffee conveyors can also handle coffee, sugar, and other additives in instant coffee production.
Piab vacuum conveyors are used by small and large coffee producers worldwide. Our products comply with food standards, and we also provide global support and help you choose the right coffee-conveying equipment for your needs through our application engineers and partners.
We wanted a conveyor to fill the pod production system that effectively does its job, so we don't need to worry about this part of the process. We were particularly pleased by the simple and robust design of the Piab piFLOW®f.[...] Replacing the old solution with a Piab vacuum conveyor has helped us improve product quality.
– Andreas Fritz, Head of Technology and Maintenance at Minges Coffee Roastery
Slideshow
piFLOW®p feeding a sachet filling machine
Piab piFLOW®f filling a packaging line
Benefits of conveying with Piab
Preserve the aroma in transfer
Using a closed system to transfer coffee reduces the possibility of aroma loss in the process.
Increase productivity
Feeding of the roaster, the grinder, the capsule filling machine, or the packaging machine can be automated easily.
Compact design
The compact design has a small footprint and takes less space than, for example, a screw conveyor or bucket elevator.
Compliant coffee conveying
All Piab equipment with food contact is EC, FDA, and USDA certified. We also offer ATEX-certified equipment.
FAQ
The vacuum conveyors can handle up to 14 tons/hour capacity and can overcome approximately 20 meters in height and 100 meters in length. The maximal capacity greatly depends on the application and setup.
Piab vacuum conveyors can handle sticky and problematic powders. There may be a need for extra fluidization, which is advised by our application engineers or partners depending on the application you have if needed.
Yes, there is 5 years' warranty on most Piab products. Please take a look at the specific product manuals for more details.
Typically we convey ground coffee with 500 - 600 kg/hour capacity; roasted coffee beans with around 4 tons/hour, and green coffee beans at ca. 800 kg/hour.
Explore
[Article] Delivering clean sugar with Piab’s piFLOW®p vacuum conveyor
[Article] Ergonomic hazards in the Food industry and how to eliminate them
[Video] Coffee conveying at Minges
[Article] Respiratory hazards in the Food industry and how to eliminate them
Products
Do you want to know more about our vacuum conveyors for your coffee production?
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