GERMANY – GEA, one of the world’s largest suppliers of systems and components to the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries, has introduced NiSoMate, an innovative sensor-based technology designed for real-time product control during the homogenisation process.
The system allows continuous inline analysis of liquids, providing instant insights into consistency and quality, enabling immediate adjustments for enhanced energy efficiency in production.
The GEA NiSoMate system integrates dedicated sensors directly onto the homogeniser, offering precision measurement accuracy without direct product contact.
The technology employs ultrasound-based “beamforming array” technology, developed by GEA homogenisation experts, to analyze physical properties like density and consistency changes in real time. This facilitates adjustments to homogenisation pressure, optimizing energy use without the need for laboratory sample results.
According to GEA, the NiSoMate eliminates unnecessary detours, minimizes product waste, and prevents over-setting of high pressure, resulting in substantial resource savings.
Users can achieve production goals faster, particularly when dealing with new liquid types. In addition, pre-configured recipes can be used and set for a faster process flow once an in-situ fingerprint has been analyzed for the respective starting product.
This enables faster development of new recipes and therefore faster production of new products, offering a competitive edge, especially in food, new food and pharmaceutical applications.
“With the GEA NiSoMate, users can also achieve their overall production goals much faster, especially when processing new types of liquids,” says GEA.
The technology’s multi-sensor system ensures accurate and reliable product evaluation. Data collected can be seamlessly transferred to existing monitoring systems and dashboards for further analysis and process optimization.
GEA has also incorporated modules for future integration of artificial intelligence, paving the way for self-optimization of plant and process in subsequent developments.
GEA records revenue growth
Concurrently, GEA has recorded an 8 percent organic revenue growth to US$5.87 million, with order intake growing 0.8 percent to US$5.97 million.
Among the customer industries, beverage and new food recorded double-digit year-on-year growth, while other customer industries saw declines.
During the reporting year, GEA secured 13 large orders (volume over EUR 15 million) worth a total of US$421.6 million, notably in the beverage, new food, dairy and chemical customer industries.
“In the face of the numerous challenges in fiscal year 2023, we managed to further improve our key financial figures. This is yet again testament to our strength and resilience,” says CEO Stefan Klebert.
“We would not have achieved these results without our employees, whose extraordinary commitment is crucial to our success. I would like to thank each and every one of them for their vital contribution.”
Given the strong order backlog and current business performance, GEA anticipates organic revenue growth of 2.0 to 4.0 percent and an EBITDA margin before restructuring expenses of 14.5 to 14.8 percent in fiscal year 2024.
Liked this article? Subscribe to Food Business Africa News, our regular email newsletters with the latest news insights from Africa and the World’s food and agro industry. HERE
