A new expanded test centre means that Neuhaus Neotec has the room to grow beyond roasting innovations.
Leading manufacturer Neuhaus Neotec has been operating testing centres for many years at its headquarters in Ganderkesee, Germany, as well as in Eastern United States, in order to evaluate and further develop products in its range of coffee processing and roasting plant technology.
Since the joint expansion of Neuhaus Neotec’s technical centre in 2019 with its sister company DEVEX, the Innovation Center has become unique in the diverse capabilities it has to offer.
“We are really trying to innovate all stages of coffee production, not just roasting,” says Lars Henkel, Head of Marketing at Neuhaus Neotec.
“One reason for going larger, is that we can recreate a small production plant. That means we can bring green coffee into the system and we can replicate the whole process including the cleaning of the coffee, roasting and grinding, and then extraction and freeze drying. This enables us to do more tests that we can do currently and innovate in more ways.”
One of the many highlights of the expanded test centre will be the controlled gassing option for ground coffee.
“This is an advanced technology that is well established but it is not typical for a test centre,” Henkel says. “For a higher quality, you can also use nitrogen in your gassing to protect the ground coffee from oxygen, which would change the taste and flavour.”
Henkel says a sophisticated test rig for gassing processes, developed in-house, will allow detailed analysis of coffee’s degassing behaviour, depending on storage conditions.
This strategic decision goes hand in hand with this year’s introduction of Neuhaus Neotec’s new Maestro drum roaster for roasting capacities of up to three-tonne-per-hour, and the consistent product development in both roasting technologies.
“Nowadays, the customer expects much more, and a key part of the innovation process is to try new things out together with the customer,” adds Henkel.
This was particularly true of testing the equipment under production conditions. Previously, that was left to customer feedback but with the expanded test facility, Neuhaus Neotec has the capability to do stress tests on equipment, for example observing several hours of continuous production.
The existing pilot plants will also be further expanded to present the variety of technical solutions in the roasting sector. For example, Neuhaus Neotec’s new Le Belle Sorelle roasting concept, presented at HOST Milan, will be installed. In this line, roasting can be done on both the drum and with rotational flexible batch technology in one system.
With the new technical centre, Neuhaus Neotec aims to provide its customers with unique production machines discovered through innovative solutions, and to shape the future together.
For more information, visit www.neuhaus-neotec.com
This article was first published in the July/August 2022 edition of Global Coffee Report. Read more HERE.