Kerrygold opts for fixed weight cutters for cheese

Customer demand for fixed weight cheese portions has led The Kerrygold Company at Leek in Staffordshire to install equipment capable of fulfilling this need.

The company's first Alpma Cut25M line was installed in 2003 and this helped reduce the giveaway of portion weights, while running at speeds of over 100 pieces a minute of packed product. The system uses size and weight data from the pre-cut cheese bar to form the correct weight portions and does not take a trim from the infeed block.

A second fixed weight cutter followed in 2004 and this was successfully linked to the flow-wrap machine to give an integrated performance and match the increasing demand for the fixed weight production. With demand for fixed weight products continuing to grow, further Cut25M lines have been purchased in 2005.

Retailing advantages from the fixed weight cheese portions are inventory control and promotion campaigns. These are now identified and costed while the producing company can increase line efficiency and reduce production cost by the use of printed film instead of label application.

The production of a fixed weight case from the same number of cheese portions allows automation to be used for packing into transit cases or distribution trays at the end of the line. The concept of allowing a portion to be cut to a sales price point by the guillotine blade cutting system has not been fully exploited yet although the concept of 'dial a size' cheese portions is a welcome far cry from the traditional methods of cutting using wire frames.

Features that have been developed by Alpma since the manufacture of the first cutters in 1999 include the ability to scan the shape of the input cheese bar and compensate for taper or bow in the calculation of the size of the fixed weight portion. This allows a wide range of cheese from producers around the world to be cut to the same accuracy, and no adjustments are required to the machine.

Alpma lines are now in production with a duplex blade to give outputs to 200 pieces/min.

Contact: Alpma,

Tel: 01256 467177