Trichy: Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (Aavin) has launched preliminary work to automate its dairy unit at Kottapattu near Trichy international airport here.
The modernization process carried out at 3.3 crore will convert the 20-year-old milk processing unit into fully automated and digitally monitored unit to improve the quality of milk supplied and reduce the production loss.
At present, processing and packaging of raw chilled milk involve manual opening of flow valves and cleaning of dairy equipment. Cleaning after disassembling of machines manually is a challenging task. Similarly, manual operation of valves and motors could lead to milk loss and a fall in quality.
As a solution to improve processing, Aavin will automate the unit by replacing manual valves into electric and pneumatic valves. Switches to open and shut milk flow valves, and to operate pumps will be mounted on control panels. Sensors will alert the operator about the appropriate time to open or close the valves. Cleaning of equipment will be automated.
“Milk’s temperature, flow pressure, and the milk homogenisation process can be monitored throughtout production. Automation will also improve quality and customer feedback. Loss in milk solids can be reduced from 0.7% to 0.4%, a crucial parameter in the dairy production,” said a senior Aavin official.
The Scada (supervisory control and data acquisition) system will supervise the process. A comprehensive management information system (MIS) will generate report every day to assess the performance. The processing and packaging of value-added milk products such as butter and milk cream will also be automated. Automation will ensure safe working conditions, the official added.
The automation work will be launched in May and completed within eight months. Manual milk processing would continue till then.
