World Grain - April 2007 - 97

SUPPLIERNEWS

Satake installed an ESM AlphaScan Colour Sorter (see inset photo) at the family-owned organic flour
mill operated by FWP Matthews Ltd. in England's Cotswold Hills. Photo courtesy of Satake Corp.

Satake installs AlphaScan Colour Sorter in organic flour mill
MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM -
Satake Corp.'s U.K. division has installed
a Satake-ESM AlphaScan Colour Sorter
in FWP Matthews Ltd., a family-owned
mill located in the heart of England's rolling Cotswold Hills that produces organic
flours.
The U.K. has experienced a sharp growth
in the consumption of organic products in
recent years. FWP Matthews has focused
its business on producing the high-quality
organic flours for a very wide distribution
network. Its diverse customer base ranges
from 25,000-kilogram (kg) bulk tanker
loads to single bag orders received through
its online shop.
As demand has grown, so has the mill's
production capacity. Last year, FWP Matthews needed to further increase production, as it faced the problem of not being
able to clean the wheat efficiently and effectively at a rate that would keep up with
its milling capacity.
Incoming deliveries of organic wheat can
suffer from additional and higher percentages of foreign seed inclusion due to the undersown crop that is often planted with organic
wheat to act as a soil fertilizer for the following year's harvest. FWP Matthews's use
of wheat from different countries also means
that the type, size and characteristics of the
foreign seeds can vary with each load.
Sometimes this meant FWP Matthews
had to "double clean" the wheat by passing
it through its mechanical screen room twice

www.World-Grain.com / World Grain / April 2007

to ensure the required purity before milling.
Double cleaning increases the loss of good
wheat and energy usage, and it impacts the
production capacity of the mill.
FWP Matthews contacted Satake to see
if a colour sorter could solve its problems.
Satake performed trials on different types of
wheat from different origins at their test facilities. It concluded that the installation of
an AlphaScan AS96R would meet the client's
demands for efficient cleaning at high capacity and in an area with limited space.
With no more than 1.5 kilowatts of singlephase power, a compressed air supply and
general exhaust connection, the AlphaScan
also offered huge power savings over the
installation of traditional mechanical cleaning equipment.
The Satake-ESM AlphaScan was installed
at FWP Matthews in September 2006. The
machine is located after a standard mechanical cleaning screenroom diagram. Wheat
is processed at up to 6,000 kg per hour on
the two primary chutes. Each chute has two
visible wavelength front and rear viewing
CCD cameras and 32 ejectors. The accepted
product from the primary chutes continues
on to the milling process.
The rejected product is transferred by a
simple blowing system to the third chute,
where it is re-sorted separately to further
concentrate the rejected material. All machine functions are controlled independently of the mill computer. The operation
of the vibratory feeders based on product

levels and flow rates, auto calibration and
self-cleaning functions are performed from
within the machine's software. This simplifies the installation, as the only external
control connections are interlock related.
"The AlphaScan has now been in operation for over six months and has proven itself
undoubtedly efficient at separating foreign
seeds and contamination over a wide range
of wheat varieties," said Glynn Williams,
production director of FWP Matthews. "The
machine is now not only a very important
part of our cleaning system, but our customers receive additional confidence in product
safety and security knowing that their flour
has been milled from wheat cleaned to the
highest possible level."

Satake appoints Moroccan
representative
MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM -
The Satake Corporation recently announced
that they have appointed BCS Casablanca as
their exclusive representatives in Morocco.
Satake said it has achieved significant business growth in Northern Africa in recent years
and this new partnership forms an
important part of
the group's future
plans. BCS will
support Satake's
complete product range, including PeriTec
Debranning and Colour Sorting.

http://www.World-Grain.com

World Grain - April 2007

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