OKALHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA, US — Artificial intelligence (AI) is here, it’s powerful and millers who don’t embrace it may be left behind, said Liam Cassidy, senior executive director, automation, with Knobelsdorff.
“Imagine what’s possible when you combine your expertise in this room with the power of AI,” said Cassidy, who spoke during the educational sessions at the International Association of Operative Millers’ Annual Conference & Expo. “You can either watch that train go by and watch your competitors get stronger, faster and more efficient. Or you can jump on that train and actually drive this inside your organization.”
Technology is moving faster than ever, and billions of dollars are being spent, he said.
“I’m here to tell you today we do have to react 100%,” Cassidy said. “This is here now. It’s not going away. We have to learn how to use it. We have to embrace it. We have to change our mindset and we have to change our culture.”
The large language models that have been trained on huge amounts of text data are the most well-known AI.
AI refining the milling process: Potential seen even as minding the flour remains in human hands
“It’s like it’s reading every single book that was ever written, every single white paper, every single research paper,” Cassidy said. “It’s training constantly and it’s getting faster and faster and better and better.”
Combining AI with machine learning and the Internet of Things technology, which many flour mills already have, can mean fewer manual inputs, improved uptime and better yield, he said.
“Now you are actually moving into intelligent coordination, where you’re doing machine learning, you’re bringing in all your data and you’re using large language models to quickly find the data you need at a specific time rather than looking through reports, dashboards, emails and asking operators,” Cassidy said. “We’re moving from working in isolation where documents are all over the place to having a holistic, connected system.”
To prepare, Cassidy said a solid infrastructure is needed. A good method will be needed to connect the automation systems that many mills already have in place. He also suggested cleaning up data, for example eliminating duplicate operating procedures.
Ensuring the data is safe and secure is also important, he said. From there, staff needs to be trained in how to effectively use the AI.
“Start thinking about getting an expert in or someone that can train you on how to use AI,” Cassidy said.
He stressed that AI, no matter how powerful, will not replace people.
“People want to work with people,” Cassidy said. “You guys are the experts. No one knows better how to run your mills than the people in this room. Use this tool to make your mills more efficient.”
Milling equipment advancements
Stefan Schmitz with SWISCA explains the features of the sieve trays in the company’s new SIFTO plansifter.
| Credit: ©SOSLAND PUBLISHING CO.In the exhibition, several equipment suppliers were showcasing new innovations for improving milling efficiency. SWISCA, based in Switzerland, attracted a large crowd for its product showcase on its new SIFTO plansifter. The company received the Best of Show award for the SIFTO. Last year it received the same award for its ROMIL roller mill.
“We feel this is very important as an addition to the portfolio of SWISCA to build an actual flour mill from A to Z,” said Ruedi Weiss, chief executive officer of SWISCA North America. “We have roll stands now, we have a very good lineup of scales and we have accessories that many of you don’t even know yet we have. Now the sifter really completes the portfolio.”
The all-stainless steel plansifter has no paint, making for a highly sanitary product, he said. The drive system is housed internally around the center of the sifter, and each stack has its own motor. Because there’s no external drive section, the footprint of the plansifter is smaller.
Each sifter can have one to eight stacks, which can hold up to 30 sieve frames. The modular design gives millers more opportunities when determining a mill flow sheet, and allows customization in the number of sieve stacks, said Stefan Schmitz, technology, sales and service with SWISCA.
“It’s also important when maybe you have building restrictions,” he said. “You can easily do less frames. You don’t have the whole shifter chassis to fit into the building.”
While each stack can hold up to 30 frames, that makes for a tall machine, Weiss said.
“We’d rather go with more sifters strategically placed in the right spot,” he said. “The bigger the box the better is not really true. One reason is we have a lot more stress on the boxes when they’re really large.
“We also see that we have different stock that sifts with different speeds so much better. So why not split them up a little more and let them run at the speed they run optimally for the stock we have on them?”
The flyweights can be adjusted to the respective passages, and the servo drive allows variable speed settings during operation.
There is no door and no special tool needed to open the sifter and access the sieve frames, Schmitz said. Pushing down on the tensioning device opens the sieve stack in the middle, giving access to the top and bottom frames.
Immediately after opening, the miller can access any sieve without removing any other frame. The frames themselves have a different design in that the sieve sits below the frame. The frames stack directly on top of each other with no felt or other material between them, reducing maintenance and the possibility of leakage, Schmitz said.
The sieves are also stainless steel produced with etched technology, he said. The hexagonal holes provide better accuracy than square holes, Schmitz said.
The surface of the sieve is very smooth, so the product moves easily with less force.
“When we have less acceleration force, the sifter can run with less RPM and the product is moving faster,” Schmitz said. “When you keep the same high RPM, you can put more capacity on the system, but you would also need more sieve frames.”
Weiss said overall, the sifter is a tremendous change.
“You can say there used to be a shortage of sifter space compared to your roller floor; I think that’s a thing of the past,” he said. “Now we are keeping up with what the roller mills can do, and we may need another floor of roller mills.”
Diwakar Mokadam with Imas North America explains the benefits of using torque motors in place of belt-pulley drive systems to power roll stands.
| Credit: ©SOSLAND PUBLISHING CO.Imas, based in Istanbul, Turkey, showcased the torque motors that have been added to the company’s roll stands.
Diwakar Mokadam with Imas North America said the company applied the kinds of torque motors being used in the automobile industry to replace the traditional motors with belt-pulley drive systems.
“You’re losing a lot of efficiency through the belt and you’re losing a lot of energy that way,” he said. “Also, they’re very loud.”
The torque motors have a very small footprint and are self-contained in the roll stand cabinet. Energy savings are about 25% compared to traditional motors, he said.
“Now, you don’t need a motor floor underneath it, and you also don’t need a big motor hanging on the outside of the roll stand,” Mokadam said.
The motors are very reliable and they offer constant torque right from the start, and the speed of the main rolls can be adjusted easily, he said. They also require minimal maintenance with the elimination of lubrication and spare parts such as belts and other consumables.
Roller mills with the new torque motors have been operating in Italy since 2021 and are now available to the global market. They are compatible with Imas’ Milenyum and Multimilla roller mills.
Two sizes of torque motors are available: high torque for break passages (200 Newtons nominal torque and 500 rpm maximum speed) and low torque for smooth passages (400 Newtons nominal torque and 500 rpm maximum speed).
Right now, they are available for the single high stands but will be available for the double high in the future, Mokadam said.
Bühler’s Georg Schafler gave insight into a new approach for modern mill design.
| Credit: ©SOSLAND PUBLISHING CO.During the educational sessions, Bühler’s Georg Schafler discussed changes in modern mill design. When designing a mill, decisions are made either for flexibility or efficiency. Bringing both together requires a new approach, he said.
This approach is a consecutive solution where there are two mills that are completely separate but 100% similar. They work in tandem with raw material coming from one process and outgoing product also handled in one process, he said.
“This allows us to split the bigger flour mills into two units and try to compensate for the disadvantages of a big flour mill,” Schafler said.
With the consecutive approach, one mill can keep operating while the other is down for maintenance, or each mill could do maintenance at different times, which would still keep production capacity higher than if there was only one milling line.
Other benefits include simplified operation due to the lower capacity per unit, higher utilization of the maintenance team, reduction in finished product storage space and potential savings in engineering due to the possibility to copy the design.
“There is not one fits all solution,” Schafler said. “We have to talk to the customer. We have to respect the trends, the circumstances, the market, the outbound and inbound logistics. Every customer around the globe comes to a different conclusion.”
