Aja Ltd. (UK) - Called the ‘holy grail’ by a major UK Prepared Food producer the Aja AWS Fresh Sticky Food Weigher now offers Multihead weighing automation where previously it was not possible with traditional gravity driven multihead scales. Developed in Japan for Aja the AWS has been designed to address the on-going problems associated with weighing sticky fresh, cooked and marinated fresh meat, poultry, pasta, cooked vegetables, salads, fish etc. The compact design, portability and ease of cleaning offer further benefits for companies striving to reduce labour, increase line speeds, improve reliability and reduce give away and waste.

The AWS can be semi or fully automatic with ‘auger screw feeders’ or ‘belt feeders’ delivering and controlling the raw material feed to the special non-stick feed hoppers which open with a clean sweep shutter when product is called for by the weigh heads. Having selected the portion combination the weigh heads using a ‘scrap & clean’ mechanism pushes the portion onto the collection trough which in turn pushes the combined portions into the punnet or tray through a bespoke designed rise and fall delivery chute. In some applications the weigh head uses small modular belts which drive the raw material forward onto a collation belt and on into the tray or pot.



These unique transfer weighing systems eliminate material loss through sticking and hanging of small pieces, finings and marinade. Unlike some alternatives which are often a compromise solution or hybrid of existing systems the AWS is a absolutely dedicated solution for fresh very sticky, wet, raw material.

Typical average Give Away is sub 0.5% > 0.25% with zero or minimal waste and weighing errors.

There are 4 models in the range with 5, 10 or 12 heads offering speeds of up to 45ppm [depending on model, 55ppm being possible with a tandem system] Low Give Away and increased PPM are key benefits as companies strive to automate this difficult area of food manufacture. The increasing demand to introduce automation to replace labour intensive and inaccurate hand weighing operations has created huge interest in AWS weighers with a number of systems already installed and many other Prepared Food * Food to Go companies actively looking at projects for the near future.

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