• The Smart & Sparkling consortium meets at the Masía Vallformosa facilities to start the project to adapt the labeller to industry 4.0

Last Tuesday, April 20, the companies DIFMAQ, TAI Smart Factory and Masia Vallformosa, members of the Packaging Cluster and the Catalan wine cluster INNOVI, also present at the meeting, met to make a first approximation of the scope of the Smart & Sparkling project.

The project starts from the identification of the need to facilitate the transition to Industry 4.0 of manufacturing companies, in such a way as to allow progress towards a connected ecosystem and at the forefront of technology, without requiring high levels of investment and/or machinery changes. That is, being able to adapt existing machines to the needs of companies at all levels and points of the production chain.

To do so, the company DIFMAQ will analyze the demands and needs of Vallformosa and will develop different solutions for the different levels of requirements together with TAI Smart Factory, who will develop the software and management system part.

DIFMAQ (Design and Manufacture of Food Machinery) is an SME that designs and manufactures machinery for the food, pharmacy, chemical and cosmetic sectors, mainly in the product families of labeling machines for containers, flexible packaging machines with solids, and roasters of coffee, cocoa and dry products, as well as special custom machinery, as well as process automation in line with Industry 4.0, so they have extensive experience in industrial trends and the new needs that the industrial revolution implies.

On the other hand, TAI Smart Factory is also a SME specialized in the development, commercialization, implementation and maintenance of software for the capture and management of industrial data, as well as its monitoring, analysis and exploitation of the same, with accumulated experience in the national and international market since 1997.

Both companies are part of the AEI Packaging Cluster, the project coordinating organization.

On the part of the food sector, the wine company Masía Vallformosa participates, which, with more than 150 years of history, is one of the leading companies in the wine and sparkling sector. In Vallformosa tradition, innovation, sustainability and differentiation coexist in all its aspects, which makes it the ideal partner and end user for this project.

Vallformosa is part of the AEI Clúster Innovi, the Catalan wine cluster. INNOVI is the Catalan wine cluster with the mission of promoting the competitiveness of companies throughout the value chain of the Catalan wine sector through innovation. The objective is to consolidate the wine-growing region of Catalonia as a benchmark in terms of innovation and global quality.

In addition to the intersectoral collaboration of this project, it should be noted that this initiative aims to improve the competitiveness of the companies involved and that of the entire packaging and food sector, promoting the adoption of Industry 4.0 in Spanish companies, especially SMEs.

In this first meeting, the people involved in the project were presented, the needs and expectations of Vallformosa were reflected, and TAI and DIFMAQ made an initial proposal that they promised to adapt to the aspects initially commented by the wine company. Finally, a visit was made to the line that will receive the improvements to see the challenges and requests of Vallformosa in-situ.

Smart & Sparkling is one of the five projects presented in the call for grants in support of AEI of this year 2021 as part of the entity's commitment to improve the industrial processes of small and medium-sized companies in the Catalan and national territory.