Both for territorial reasons (our company was historically born a stone’s throw from the Agro Nocerino-Sarnese) and for the quality of our weighing systems, always ready to welcome the challenges of an increasingly innovative industrial production, LCD Weighing instruments boasts a profound experience in supplying the major Italian operators in the canning sector.

A strategic sector for our economy: just think that Italy, in 2023, with 5.4 million tonnes transformed, is the third largest transformer in the world after the USA and China.

Let’s discover something more about this fascinating industrial sector which – through the industrial process – removes products from the natural course of time to preserve the fruits of the earth.

A bit of history

Originally from Peru, the tomato was widespread among the Maya and Aztecs three thousand years before the arrival of the European conquerors. In the second half of the 16th century it was introduced from South America to Europe. Towards the end of the 1700s Lazzaro Spallanzani began to realize the possibility of preserving tomatoes, through conservation in glass and boiling which reduced the bacterial load. A few years later (1802) Nicolas Appert invented a system for preserving vegetable products, based on the use of hermetic containers which, once sterilized, were supposed to guarantee the preservation of the contents.

In Italy, the industrial processing of tomatoes began in the second half of the 19th century, when the pioneer of the Italian agri-food industry, the Piedmontese Francesco Cirio (1836-1900), decided to implement a series of factories in the provinces of Salerno and Naples, where the cultivation of long tomatoes was most widespread.

At the end of the nineteenth century, in Italy, two macro industrial areas had developed interested in the production of canned tomatoes, each of which with its own peculiarity: the area of Emilia Romagna (Parma) with the cultivation of round tomatoes and the production of preserves and the Campania area, around Vesuvius and along the banks of the Sarno river – in the Agro Sarnese-Nocerino – with the production of long-preserved whole peeled tomatoes.

A few numbers

Italy is the third largest tomato producer in the world after the United States and China; it represents 14.8% of world production and 56.5% of European production and is the leading exporter of tomato-based products. In 2022, in Italy – compared to 65,180 hectares cultivated – 5.5 million tonnes of tomatoes were transformed, of which 52.5% in the Northern basin and 47.5% in the Centre-South (source: ANICAV).

The tomato canning sector employs approximately 10,000 permanent workers and 25,000 seasonal workers, in addition to the workforce employed in related industries. Every year the canning industry uses 3.5 billion cans for the production of tomato derivatives, equal to 700,000 km, useful for circling the Earth more than 15 times.

Our solutions for canning industry

From weighing the fruit to packaging and logistics: our company provides the canning industry with innovative, integrated and interconnected solutions for weight management. Here are some examples.

Weightbridge

Our company designs and manufactures modular metal, concrete and iron/concrete weighbridges. The weighbridge is the ideal solution for weighing vehicles and very heavy loads. The structure of our scales, given the limited size of just 40cm, makes underground or raised installations possible, with access ramps.

Weight detection is guaranteed by the presence of steel compression load cells and an electronic terminal, which can also be connected via wi-fi, through which it is possible to view the weight and manage accessory functions.

Inline weighing systems

Automatic pricing machines are specially designed for selecting products based on weight. For this reason they are crucial in production and packaging plants. Our company designs with the customer systems and integration systems for our weighers even in the presence of pre-existing production lines. Package labeling can be added to the weighing of the products.

Weighing and logistics

Optimal solutions for weighing on the go. Systems with high reliability and precision equipped with an electronic weighing system with load cells and terminal.

For further information and advice, write to us at tecnologia@laboratoriometrologico.net or call us on 089 954279.