"Ensuring long-term productivity, from raw material to consumer"

LINK is FMC FoodTech's innovative solution to increase the long-term process productivity of an entire processing line of coating equipment, conveyors, fryers, ovens and freezers.

FMC FoodTech, the technology and solutions provider to the food processing industry, has launched a new controls and software solutions suite designed to simplify the duties of processing line operators: LINK. LINK is FMC FoodTech's innovative solution to increase the long-term process productivity of an entire processing line of coating equipment, conveyors, fryers, ovens and freezers. With LINK, FMC FoodTech customers can make substantial improvements in product uniformity, traceability, food safety and productivity across the full processing line.

"In order to make LINK the best solution possible for our customers, we interviewed more than 20 of our customers across North America, Europe and Asia about their present and future controls needs,“ said Thomas Lundqvist, product line manager for FMC FoodTech. "These conversations shaped the development of LINK and we are proud to now offer our customers the most comprehensive and efficient process line management system available today.“

The LINK product line is comprised of four modules: control system, process analysis, consulting and service. LINK Control System is now available for use with stand-alone pieces of equipment or across an integrated line of equipment. The process analysis, consulting and service modules will be released early next year.

LINK Control System is operated through a simple, easy-to-use interface and its operating, monitoring and data collection capabilities increase process line productivity and ensure uniform product quality and food safety.

A similar control system has been available with FMC FoodTech's Stein ovens for several years but was recently re-engineered into an advanced control system, LINK Line Control, to handle full lines of FMC FoodTech's coating equipment, conveyors, fryers, ovens and freezers.

Line speed synchronisation

LINK Line Control's line speed synchronisation feature automates the manual speed adjustment of each conveyor belt across the line, including those involved in coating, conveyors, fryers, ovens and freezers. This feature also allows for the progressive stopping of an entire line should faults occur and interrupt a section of the belt.

In these situations, the progressive stop function will stop all upstream equipment and keep downstream equipment running. This automated belt synchronisation reduces set-up and operational errors, minimises waste, increases productivity and improves product consistency.

Another updated feature with LINK Line Control is the line recipe management system, which greatly reduces set-up times and improves product consistency between batches. This feature allows 2000 process line recipes to be stored on the system for future use. Once stored, recipes can be searched by name or product code and recipe analysis reports can be produced.

The newly launched LINK Line Control also includes a central data collection feature which allows process data from the entire line, real-time and historic, to be readily available at one central location. As the processing line runs, parameters on such items as temperatures, belt speeds, pressures, etc, are automatically collected and compiled.

FMC FoodTech's conversations with customers indicated a need for tools that, supplementary to LINK Control System's functions, help decipher product and process data to make it more actionable. The company's response to those needs is LINK Process Analysis: a total solution for data collection and storage to help processors improve yield, throughput and productivity while ensuring traceability and food safety. With the LINK Process Analysis report generator, users will be able to analyse critical data points in the process line to identify the causes of inconsistencies and problems, as well as track and proactively react to specific product and process parameters.

LINK CONSULTING Through LINK Consulting, users will have access to consulting from FMC FoodTech's staff of dedicated and knowledgeable food application experts. This access to in-depth understanding of food processing and years of industry expertise will be a valuable tool for customers to optimise their process line investment. LINK Consulting's features will include on-site consulting and comprehensive evaluations of existing processing environments to identify risks and realise benefits quickly.

LINK Service is a support infrastructure designed to mirror the maintenance needs of users' LINK Control and Process Analysis systems. Whether the service need is as simple as call-in phone support or as comprehensive as a full service operating lease with on-site support from FMC FoodTech personnel, LINK Service will help maintain optimal performance on processing lines that run a broad range of products. When used in conjunction with LINK Control and Process Analysis systems, it will be possible to conduct LINK Service troubleshooting remotely via dial-up connection, reducing downtime and minimising costs.

For more information, visit www.fmcfoodtech.com

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