Machinery Design for Food and Beverage Processes: How to Meet the Challenges

From cave dwellers cooking over campfires to the arrival of more modern processed foods through pasteurization, bottling, and canning, to the post-war rise of "convenience foods" made possible by refrigeration, freezing, and freeze-drying, humans have always sought to preserve their foods, and keeping it in good condition for long-term storage or shipping.

Food processing is a mammoth global industry reliant on chains of machines performing individual and different tasks as the foodstuff progresses along the production line.

Whether producing coffee beans, milk powder, or chewing gum, today's designers of food processing lines are facing challenges of rising material costs and uncertain availability, increased automation and digitalization, skills gaps, meeting food safety regulations, standards, and sustainability demands, all while striving to boost efficiency and profitability.

At Altair, our convergence of simulation, high performance computing (HPC), and data analytics has made us a leader across all engineering sectors for companies looking to keep ahead of their competition. Let's see how our integrated approach can assist engineers working at the front end of machine design for the food and beverage sector.

What are the design-related considerations?

• Number one is assuring the product leaving the factory is safe for consumption, so avoiding contamination and downtime to resolve problems. This means strict obeyance to design for hygiene and cleanability is key. This, along with ever-growing regulatory complexity tends to cause longer development times, leading to higher costs.
• Meeting and sustaining food processing rates to deliver the right amount of product at the correct time translates into having a robust but adaptable equipment design.
• Producing a consistent product, be it between batches or through continuous processing methods, means understanding the nature of the foodstuff as it progresses to optimize throughput and maintain uniform, energy-efficient temperature profiles.
• All food has its own handling and processing requirements as it moves along the production line. Today, many stages are automated and computer-controlled with integration between each step, which are vital to maintain a quality product at the correct throughput rate.

The rise of the digitalization

Prediction and problem solving have traditionally relied on physical testing, machine prototyping, and often lengthy, on-site commissioning trials where every setback becomes a costly rework. The boom in computer-aided engineering (CAE) with simulation tools integrated and readily available has created a new simulation-driven design approach that directly reduces the need for testing and prototyping.

Good design means that foodstuff is successfully processed at all stages in the processing line and moves seamlessly to the point its packaged form leaves the factory dispatch bay.

To achieve this, knowing how the food will behave as it progresses is crucial to success. This is the role of discrete element modeling (DEM), a recognized simulation technique that shows designers how their equipment will perform virtually. It helps predict potential issues - squished fruits, crushed crisps, blocked tubes, clumping of powders, inconsistent spice blends, uneven coatings, inconsistent filling - and enables engineers to resolve challenges earlier rather than retro-fixing on the factory floor.

Additionally, the arrival of digital twins means entire machine designs can be explored virtually, problem-solved, and optimized before any parts are made. With industrial digitalization comes the ability to both monitor and control complex processes by embedded sensor networks, with the continuous streams of data produced being analyzed by artificial intelligence and used to not only adjust on the fly but also become a valuable asset for future designs.

Want to optimize your food and beverage processes? Click here to access our on-demand webinar to discover how to optimize food and beverage processes with the discrete element method.