At 7:08 this morning, cheers rang out in workshop No. 3 of our factory-the first batch of fully automatic coffee packaging machines officially went off the production line! Watching the conveyor belt steadily deliver the first vacuum packaging bag, the head of the R&D team, Lao Wang, had tears in his eyes: "This machine is filled with the hard work we have accumulated for three years!"
This story started last summer. At that time, a boutique coffee factory in Yunnan came to the door and said that their existing semi-automatic equipment could not keep up with the rhythm of e-commerce orders, and manual packaging always leaked. Our technical team squatted in the customer's workshop for three days, and when they came back, they issued a military order: they must make a "smart machine" that can handle the entire process from weighing to palletizing.
The skills of this fully automatic coffee packaging machine are really amazing. When we tested the machine last month, we poured coffee powder mixed with crushed beans into the feed port, and the visual inspection system found five unqualified particles on the spot. What's even more amazing is the adaptive sealing technology, which can ensure that every cut is as neat as if it was measured with a ruler, even for uneven thickness of the hanging ear bag. Mr. Li, who came to visit the factory next door, joked: "You have installed a barista's brain in the machine, right?"
What is the core of the intelligent production line? Our engineers installed a central control system that can "learn" for the equipment. Just like the process of a novice packer becoming a master, the machine has mastered the temperament of coffee powder with different grinding degrees through repeated debugging. When debugging the equipment for a customer in Northeast China last week, we encountered the problem that ultra-fine ground powder was easy to float. The system autonomously adjusted the negative pressure adsorption parameters, and the packaging accuracy was raised by two levels.
Now what makes peers jealous of this production line is that it truly realizes the "dark factory" standard. From the film roll to the finished product, only two inspection posts are left throughout the process. Guess what? The unmanned production system that was trial-produced last quarter has helped Zhejiang customers save 60% of labor costs. Their workshop director specially sent a video: In the factory at midnight, only our machine was quietly working with a blue light flashing, and the packaged coffee bags were lined up to get into the logistics box. The scene was like a space base in a science fiction movie.
Xiao Zhang from the marketing department has been receiving calls so many times recently: "Middle Eastern customers asked if it can be adapted to 500g tinplate cans? Southeast Asian distributors want to be compatible with cold brew coffee liquid bags?" These demands were expected by us. The newly put into production fully automatic coffee packaging machine adopts a modular design, and switching packaging forms is more convenient than changing the shell of a mobile phone. The equipment that was just shipped to Chongqing yesterday was still making nitrogen-locked coffee powder bags in the morning, and switched to inflatable anti-pressure coffee bean cans in the afternoon.
The most heartwarming design of this machine is the self-test error reporting function. Last time, a customer in Hebei Province triggered the emergency brake by mistake, and the touch screen directly popped up a three-dimensional fault diagram, clearly indicating which sensor was alarming and which air pipe had insufficient pressure. Customer Lao Liu sighed on the phone: "You have stuffed the maintenance manual into the control system!"
Right now, our factory is working at full capacity to rush orders, and container trucks waiting to pick up goods are lined up in a long line at the factory gate. The new slogan on the wall of the workshop expresses everyone's thoughts - "Let every coffee bean wear smart protective clothing." Next time if you pass by our No. 3 workshop, you can see through the glass that the row of brand-new fully automatic coffee packaging machines are working with their heads shaking, just like a group of steel chefs who are seriously packing.
