Western Mechanical Handling (WMH) (www.wmh-uk-ltd.com) is pleased to announce the development of a machine that produces perfect Yorkshire puddings every time.

Specializing in automated food handling systems, the Cornish machine builder used controls and drives equipment from automation specialist Mitsubishi Electric (www.mitsubishielectric.com).

The machine deposits the correct amounts of Yorkshire pudding batter to the baking moulds for a frozen foods plant, and solves inconsistency problems by getting away from ordinary motors running for a set time.

WMH has developed a Mitsubishi servo-based system that increases throughput, while ironing out the inaccuracies of batter pumping.

The system consists of 10 axis J3 servo drive arrangement, with every servo connected through high speed SSC net from Mitsubishi Electric. Its nine axes are dedicated to the depositors, with each axis driving 32 pump chambers.

The servo drives are each programmed using a map of known volume to be dispensed, while the required number of pump rotation is calculated depending upon the needed product settings.

The system also has an anti-drip mechanism, which prevents excess product that causes cleaning issues in the production cycle. The servo drives cleverly suck excess batter back to the nozzle at the end of every cycle.

The 10^th axis then operates the depositor heads carriage, which coordinates with the conveyor speed, as detected by an encoder feedback. This helps reduce waste and increase throughput, according to the company.