Engineering Students Examined Dairy Automation at AmulFed Dairy

A delegation of power electronics engineering students from Vishwakarma Government Engineering College completed a technical visit to the AmulFed Dairy manufacturing complex in Gujarat. The visit was conducted under the supervision of the college’s institutional leadership and departmental faculty and focused on the operation of automated systems in commercial milk processing.

AmulFed Dairy is described as one of Asia’s largest integrated dairy manufacturing complexes. Its designed capacity exceeds five million litres of raw milk a day. Students followed the movement of milk from tanker reception at the farm gate through processing, storage and automated dispatch for retail distribution.

At the receiving stage, automated bays and computerised testing equipment assess butterfat and solids-not-fat levels before the milk is directed to bulk-storage silos. The processing circuits include variable-frequency drives, motor-control centres, programmable logic controllers and supervisory control and data-acquisition systems. These systems operate pumps, homogenisers, centrifugal clarifiers and plate pasteurisers, while adjusting motor speeds to changing liquid volumes.

The group also examined automated cleaning-in-place equipment. Valve assemblies and electronic flow meters circulate sanitising solutions through stainless-steel pipework without requiring manual dismantling. In powder-production areas, automated airflow dampers and temperature controls regulate drying conditions and support consistent moisture removal and powder density.

The visit placed the equipment within the wider adoption of Industry 4.0 systems by Indian dairy cooperatives. Enclosed and digitally monitored production areas reduce direct human contact during processes including aseptic packaging and spray drying. Digital telemetry is used to standardise operating measurements, while automated packaging lines with weight-checking systems limit excess product and packaging-film waste.

Electrical power and boiler fuel are identified in the source as major recurring costs in high-throughput dairy plants, alongside milk procurement. The equipment examined by the students included power converters, high-efficiency induction motors and systems for managing peak loads. The source also notes the use of artificial-intelligence tools, predictive vibration monitoring and industrial internet-of-things sensors in modern plants.

The technical visit addressed the skills required to maintain high-voltage distribution networks and automated control loops. The source links engineering training at manufacturing sites with the development of specialists able to support plant reliability and limit unplanned stoppages. It also states that reliable cooperative processing protects the interests of the smallholder producers who depend on daily milk collection.