March/April 2020

| 38 | March/April 2020 www.smartmachinesandfactories.com | TECHNOLOGIES | Smart Machines & Factories looks at how dairy manufacturers can use AR to augment plant maintenance. A ugmented reality (AR) has a long relationship with the industrial sector. In fact, one of the first applications of the technology was in the navigation of NASA’s X-38 spacecraft. Today, the advancement of AR technology has made it easily accessible to consumers and engineers alike via smartphone apps. In the dairy industry as in many others, margins are everything. Business leaders always want their operations to be as efficient and effective as possible, with the highest possible uptime and the lowest possible operational expenses. This means low product wastage, high energy efficiency and lean processes. However, dairy manufacturers and processing plants face an additional pressure. Raw dairy produce has a very limited lifespan, so it’s vital that it is treated in a timely fashion to prevent potential risks to public health. Unsurprisingly, regulation is very stringent on factors such as hygiene and the correct temperature for milk to be stored at pre-treatment. Each of these are defined in the UK’s Dairy Products (Hygiene) Regulations 1995. This is one of the key distinctions between dairy processing and many other industrial segments. Improved process speed and operational efficacy isn’t simply sought after to increase throughput and profitability. It becomes an objective because it directly correlates with the safety of products. If raw milk spends too long at a temperature A new reality for dairy processing