Nestle upgrades Ski Yogurt plant

Sherborne, UK – Nestle UK has upgraded the production facilities at its Cuddington, Cheshire site, which includes Ski Yoghurt among its product lineup.

The project featured two orders with Tetra Pak CPS for a stabiliser mix plant comprising two big-bag powder dischargers emptying into a powder weighing vessel, a high shear vacuum for incorporating the powders with liquid additives and transfer to the yoghurt mix process.

Nestle also needed to modify an existing Erca Formseal filling line from four-pot to six-pot filling to include an extra fruit-dosing station, coupled with process modifications at the filling machine to feed yoghurt and fruit to the new filling head -- including CIP facilities.

For Nestle, the key issues were speed of installation of the fruit-dosing station -- to meet launch dates for new yoghurt packaging -- and quality control with the mix plant by changing from bulk preparation to a batch-by-batch system that delivered only as much product at a time as needed.

According to Tetra Pak CPS, the weighing and mixing sequences were sized to provide a hold-time for hydration before transfer to the yoghurt process. The package, it said, was designed to be system controlled from an Allen Bradley PLC with a local operator screen and an interface with the existing Accos plant control.

Tetra Pak CPS worked with Erca Formseal and PCM Dosys to integrate their equipment into the existing plant and to manage site issues arising from their contracts with Nestle.