Our application centers
Turning innovation into application
Bühler’s Application & Training Centers are unique in many respects. They are spread all over the world to respond to local tastes and market needs. Customers benefit from technologists and experts who accompany them in developing and testing new recipes and products from the idea to the trial runs.
Markus Reber, December 2021
Our network of Application & Training Centers (ATCs) continues to grow. This year alone, Bühler and its partners opened two centers for alternative proteins: the Protein Innovation Centre in Singapore and the Technology Center Proteins of the Future in Germany. As a result, the network now comprises application centers in 24 locations around the globe.
“We can offer our customers trial runs, joint product development, and training close to them. If not in the same country, then in the same region or time zone,” says Sandra Lutz. As the Global Director of Bühler’s Technology & Product Development Process & Facilities, she is also responsible for the strategic orientation of the ATCs worldwide.
Having a local foothold enables customers to discuss local market trends and test their ideas with Bühler’s experts and validate and improve processes with their own raw materials and recipes. “Our technologists and experts are among the best in their field when it comes to processing local raw materials,” she explains.
Bühler shares its process knowledge with customers and contributes to idea generation, for example through demonstrations and networking or cocreation events. Our experts advise on new product ideas, co-develop new product lines, and support customers in enhancing the performance of existing lines. Customers then test their potential recipe modifications on our pilot lines. “We want our customers to know they can turn to us with any issues or ideas, and we will develop solutions together,” Lutz says. The application centers feature the latest generation of Bühler technologies and are connected to our digital services. This aids internal research and development to further improve solutions while they are in operation. Both customers and Bühler’s own service engineers are trained at the application centers, learning how to optimally set up their process solutions, maintain them, and apply the technologies in the best possible way. This training can also take place at a customer’s plant.
A high point for Bühler’s application network was the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) certification of the moulding application center in Reichshof, Germany, in 2021. The certification allows joint developments of new, delicious product innovations and the production of samples for market tests. Bühler also has food-grade application centers in Singapore and Minneapolis.
Our technologists and experts are among the best in their field when it comes to processing local raw materials.
Sandra Lutz,
Global Director of Bühler’s Technology & Product Development Process & Facilities
Further competence centers to follow
Bühler will continue to invest in its application landscape in 2022. Following the announcement of another major project to build an industrial insect processing plant for animal feed for a customer in France, Bühler will also expand its application capacities in the field of insect processing at the beginning of 2022.
The opening of the Insect Technology Center in Uzwil complements the other application centers in Switzerland, where Bühler is already developing new feed solutions together with customers. And Bühler will enter a new field next year with two partners to accelerate the development and market penetration of cellular agriculture products such as cultured meat.
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