Summary

Alkanel Automation: Brewing Innovation with Unitronics

Founded in 2018, Alkanel Automation sh.p.k specializes in automating food and packaging processes, from coffee roasting and capsule filling to large-scale animal feed bagging.
To meet their customers’ diverse needs, Alkanel’s CTO and automation engineer, Mirian Kanaçi, relies on Unitronics all-in-one PLC + HMI controllers, VFDs, and communication modules to automate:

• Green & roasted coffee silo management with recipe-based mixing and precise weighing
• Roasting machines with advanced burner, airflow, and drum control using VFDs and modulating burners
• Capsule and dosing machines with high-accuracy weighing, servo-driven dosing, and sealing units
• Machines that incorporate dual weighers, load cells, VFD-driven belts, and automatic sewing systems

With Unitronics’ integrated hardware and software, Alkanel delivers reliable, efficient, and data-driven automation to customers across Europe.

As Mirian Kanaçi explains:

“Working with Unitronics is so easy. The all-in-one hardware and software platform saves time and simplifies every project. That’s why we plan to integrate Unitronics servos into future applications.”

From bean to bag, Alkanel trusts Unitronics to power their automation journey.

The Company

Alkanel Automation sh.p.k specializes in designing and automating in solutions for food production processes, packaging machines, pneumatic transport, and auxiliary equipment for products such as coffee, peanuts, dried fruits, and more.

Alkanel also provides repair and revision services across mechanical, electrical, and electronic packaging systems. Their design office, combined with extensive cooperation with Italian leaders such as IMF Roaster and Delfin Vacuums, has equipped Alkanel with the expertise to handle packaging, storage, mixing, and pneumatic transport of food products. Supported by a team of highly qualified engineers and on-site assembly technicians, Alkanel delivers tailor-made plants for clients across Greece, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, and Hungary.

The Challenge

Alkanel’s machines—covering roasting, dosing, and packaging—must integrate a wide variety of functions:

• Temperature control
• Weighing and dosing
• Sewing and sealing
• Recipe management
• Data logging and reporting
• Remote access and monitoring

For end-users, operator-friendly HMIs, secure recipe handling, and reliable data collection are essential.

Alkanel’s systems need to answer end-user expectations for intuitive HMIs, secure recipe management, and reliable data acquisition—while handling complex, multi-stage processes such as roasting, dosing, and packaging.
Their machines integrate a wide range of control functions, including:

• Temperature regulation
• Precision weighing and dosing
• Sealing and sewing control
• Recipe management and execution
• Data logging and production reporting
• Remote access and system monitoring

The Solution

To meet these requirements, Alkanel relies on Unitronics all-in-one PLC + HMI controllers and VFDs.

Automation engineer Mirian Kanaçi, CTO of Alkanel, works with Tipteh, Unitronics’ Macedonian distributor, to select the right Unitronics hardware for each application. By using Unitronics’ single-environment software platform, Alkanel integrates PLC control, HMI design, and motion/communication configuration within one tool—streamlining development and ensuring consistent system performance.

Coffee Applications

PLC-controlled Pneumatic Coffee Bean Transport

Transporting roasted beans requires extreme care: even minor impact can break beans and damage product quality. Alkanel carefully calculates pipe length, curve radii, cyclone design, vacuum pump capacity, and transport speed to avoid breakage. Coffee silos may look like a single silo, but are generally internally divided into sections for storing different types of coffee beans.

Unitronics UniStream USC-B10-T42 PLC + HMI controllers manage communication between the silo PLC and each packaging machine PLC. Using Alkanel’s HMI Application, designed in UniLogic All-in-One software, operators assign which silo section supplies which packaging machine. For example:

• Machine 3 ← Section 2 of silos
• Machine 1 ← Section 4 of silos
• Machine 2 ← Section 7 of silos

The process runs automatically by cycle: when a packaging hopper empties, it requests beans from its assigned silo section.

For a new project, Alkanel is developing software that works with a scale under the silos to track total weight delivered to each packaging machine (e.g., 1500 kg from Section 2 to Machine 3). The system memorizes discharged weight per cycle until each machine’s target quantity is reached.

Green Coffee Silos & Recipe Management via HMI

Roasting typically blends 2–8 different bean types. Alkanel’s solution manages green coffee silos and integrates with weighers after the destoner.

• Recipes are stored in a password-protected data table, each assigned a name.
• Example: Recipe Premium (for a 240 kg roasting machine):
  • Section 1: 85 kg
  • Section 3: 45 kg
  • Section 4: 50 kg
  • Section 7: 30 kg
  • Section 8: 30 kg

Operators recall recipes by name but cannot modify them. They set the desired number of cycles, and the software automatically manages discharge valves.

When a weighing cycle completes and the roaster hopper empties, the next cycle begins. Each cycle is logged to a data table.

Loading cell hoppers after the destoner records roasted output enables calculation of roasting yield.

Coffee Roasting – UniStream PLCs + VFDs

Roasting is the most critical process in coffee production, where beans develop flavor, aroma, and body through chemical reactions. Precise control of heat transfer—via burner power, airflow, and drum speed—is essential.

Using Unitronics UniStream PLC + HMI and VFDs Alkanel can control 6 temperature targets of coffee beans within a 16-minute roasting process, including gas burner output power, combustion chamber temperature, hot air flow, drum RPM, drum discharging, and coffee bean cooling.

Alkanel’s software, designed with all-in-one UniLogic software:

• Controls roasting parameters across five checkpoints per cycle
• Uses bean temperature as a reference to adjust burner power, airflow, and drum speed
• Enables operators to save roasting profiles as recipes, ensuring consistent quality across shifts
• Generates roasting graphs (bean temperature and airflow) for monitoring and process evaluation

The roaster also uses a 20–100% modulating burner controlled by analog voltage, and the system logs all process data. Load cell hoppers after the destoner track roasted output, with data stored per cycle and available for USB export.

Coffee Capsule Machine

Alkanel designed a capsule-filling machine using the UniStream UCS-B10-TA30 Pro PLC with Virtual HMI, offering:

• 14 digital inputs
• 2 analog inputs
• 2 temperature inputs
• 10 transistor outputs (2 PWM)
• 2 analog outputs
• Integrated 10.4” HMI display
• High-speed I/O modules and VFDs

A third-party servo currently manages the dosing unit, rotating table, and sealing roll pull—but Alkanel plans to switch to Unitronics Servos for an all-in-one solution.

The machine works with Nespresso-compatible aluminum capsules but can be adapted for other formats such as Lavazza Point and A Modo Mio. Precision dosing and reliable sealing protect coffee quality by preserving aroma, flavor, and body.

Coffee Dosing Machines

Alkanel’s dosing solutions include:

• Whole beans (up to 1000 g) – dual vibrating channels (gross + fine weight)
• Ground coffee (up to 250 g) – servo-driven dosing screw

Both use Unitronics Samba SM43-J-TA22 PLC + HMI with RS communication to weight transmitters. Load cells ensure high dosing precision with ±2 g accuracy.

Each machine integrates a sealing unit with PID temperature control.

The machine works with Nespresso-compatible aluminum capsules but can be adapted for other formats such as Lavazza Point and A Modo Mio. Precision dosing and reliable sealing protect coffee quality by preserving aroma, flavor, and body.

Beyond Coffee: Animal Feed Filling Machine

Alkanel also applies Unitronics automation to animal feed packaging.

This bag filling and sewing machine uses:

• Unitronics UniStream PLC + 7” HMI
• 6 Unitronics VFDs
• RS-485 communication with 3rd-party weight transmitters

The system handles 15–50 kg bags with manual bag insertion. Features include:

• Two weighers with 4 load cells each
• Dual dosing belts (gross + fine weight), VFD-driven
• Automated sewing and thread cutting with motorized bag guide
• Sewing motors under VFD control

The machine achieves throughput of up to 20 tons/hour.

Benefits

Alkanel found that the UniLogic unified programming environment approach, which integrates PLC control, HMI design, VFD motion, and communication configuration within one tool significantly reduces development time and system complexity, while also ensuring consistent system performance.

Alkanel found that using Unitronics automation products delivered clear engineering and operational advantages:

• Reduced commissioning and programming time, thanks to integrated hardware and software design
• Simplified development, with UniLogic® software providing a single environment for PLC control, HMI design, VFD motion, and communication configuration
• Built-in scalability, that also enables easy integration of future Unitronics servo solutions

Their customers also benefit from high-quality HMIs that provide real-time visibility and full control of machine processes.

CTO Mirian Kanaçi shared his perspective on working with Unitronics:

“We really like how the Unitronics hardware works, and especially the all-in-one software. You don’t need to switch between multiple environments to get the job done, and that makes development much easier. Working with Unitronics is so straightforward that we plan to incorporate Unitronics servos into our future applications.”

OR

As Mirian Kanaçi explains:

“Working with Unitronics is so easy. The all-in-one hardware and software platform saves time and simplifies every project. That’s why we plan to integrate Unitronics servos into future applications.”