Drives & Controls September 2022

38 n FOOD & BEVERAGE September 2022 www.drivesncontrols.com The writing is on the biscuit for automated decoration I t’s nearly a thousand miles from Columbus, Ohio, to Nasa’s Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida, and space rockets couldn’t seem further away from cake-decorating machines. But in the 2000s, a design engineer, based in Columbus, was working on a project to develop a 3D food-printing system that could personalise food for astronauts during long-duration space missions. The core technology was a success, and in 2016, responding to commercial demand for 3D food printing from the bakery industry, the founders set up BeeHex as a commercial operation. The concept involved developing a machine that would speed up and increase the precision of decorating products such as cakes, biscuits and desserts. Intricate decoration was a time-intensive manual skill, and the automated machines available at the time could only provide basic designs. By contrast, BeeHex’s concept would allow bakeries of all sizes to decorate biscuits, cookies, pastries and cakes, quickly and accurately, in low or high volumes. Importantly, it also offered bakeries the flexibility to integrate new decoration designs quickly, including the ability to personalise – in limited runs, through to batches of thousands of cakes if required. To move the proof-of-concept to an industrial scale, BeeHex needed to control the movements of 12 nozzles, integrated in a three-axis gantry that moved them in three dimensions to deliver the icing. The system needed the accuracy to create detailed decorations, including fine text, but it also had to operate at high speed to maximise throughput. To enable BeeHex’s engineers to develop new features and functions rapidly, the system also had to be easy and quick to program. BeeHex worked with Trio Motion Technology to develop a machine that can decorate up to 720 cookies per hour, as well as other types of dessert, using a variety of icing styles. For more complex designs requiring multiple stages, several of the machines can be linked by conveyors to create production lines. This also enables higher throughput, with such systems capable of decorating up to 15 cakes per minute, or 10,000 biscuits per hour. Users design their decorations using PC- based graphic software, which includes tools such as a digital “pen” that enables fine accuracy. The software, written in Python, communicates the design, with attributes such as patterns and colours, to a Trio MC508 controller. This communication takes place via a dynamic link library that allows BeeHex’s engineers to work with their preferred programming language. The controller replicates the design at speed by coordinating motion via three stepper motor axes. These axes, in turn, coordinate the XYZ gantry that holds the decorating nozzles. The controller also provides I/O connections including over- travel limit sensors and e-stop safety, avoiding the need for a separate PLC. The controller includes 64-bit precision register and can execute 112 lines per millisecond. This allows the decorating machine to recreate accurate designs at speed, with consistent repeatability. As a result, bakeries can achieve decoration quality and throughput that is not possible by hand. BeeHex has supplied its machines to large and small bakeries across the US. The durable machines are intended for daily operation in challenging environments, and include an automated clean-in-place system. Demand for the machines has increased following the Covid pandemic as bakeries have faced the challenge of fluctuating workforce levels. The machines have enabled bakeries to reduce their dependence on manual labour, while the automated decorating operation also reduces human contact with the products, reducing the risk of contamination. “Through automated motion control, BeeHex has been able to raise hygiene, improving the quality of bakeries’ produce,” says Trio’s North American sales manager, Ed Novak. “Reacting to consumer demand, improved hygiene standards are an increasingly important requirement for supermarkets, as well as their suppliers.” n A US start-up has developed automated machines that can decorate biscuits and cakes with intricate designs at rates of up to 10,000 items per hour. As well as being much faster than decorating by hand, the 3D printing machines reduce the risk of contamination. BeeHex’s 3D printing machines use 12 nozzles to decorate up to 10,000 biscuits per hour.