The technology group Bühler recently opened its new Grain Innovation Center (GIC) in Uzwil, a new application center for promoting collaboration and innovation in grain processing. It combines high-tech solutions with the company's many years of expertise. The GIC has been carefully designed to enable customers to innovate and improve their processes to stay ahead of the latest trends and remain competitive in their rapidly evolving markets.
In view of the changes in global grain supply chains, nutritional requirements, transparency in procurement and price pressure, the milling industry finds itself in a challenging environment. For example, it must guarantee flour quality despite varying raw material quality, improve production and energy efficiency, manage safety issues and find and retain well-trained specialists. New technologies and the inclusion of environmental issues increase complexity, while growing consumer demand for healthier and more sustainable products has increased the pace of innovation.
This is why Bühler has designed a new and high-tech facility for milling technology: the GIC. The new building follows on from Bühler's former Grain Technology Center. The five-storey facility covers an area of 2000 m2, has state-of-the-art infrastructure and houses 70 state-of-the-art machines from Bühler and its partners. The GIC serves as an innovation center for customers, where they can experiment and find concrete solutions for their specific needs.
The GIC is equipped with the latest solutions and technologies for grain and legume processing. Customers can carry out tests and develop new processes and solutions in various areas, including cleaning, optical sorting, milling, sieving, mixing and protein shifting. They can also work on the hygienisation and pelleting as well as the hulling and pearling of cereals and pulses.
"One of the main advantages of the GIC is that it can not only provide detailed data that enables continuous and precise monitoring of the process, but also track the physical and chemical properties of the product at every stage of production and under different process conditions," says Lothar Driller, Department Manager Feed Application Center and Training at Bühler.
The GIC is part of Bühler's Application and Training Center (ATC) landscape, which includes the four recently opened ATCs – Flavour Creation Center, Food Creation Center, Protein Application Center and Energy Recovery Center as well as other centers that have been in operation for several years, such as the Extrusion Application Center and the Pasta Application Center. With this innovation center, Bühler can offer complete coverage of processes from field to plate.
