Visibly conveying freshly roasted coffee direct to the consumer

Dean Merlo, founder and Director of Merlo Coffee, inherited his passion for coffee from his father and opened his first Torrefazione (Italian roasting house) in 1996. Soon after, he began developing and selling his coffee blends to other cafes and restaurants. Today, the business operates 17 retail cafe stores and supplies coffee to over 1500 eateries throughout Australia.

The company had a coffee roaster at its main store in suburban Brisbane, but in 2021 decided to triple its roasting capacity by opening another roasting facility in Eagle Farm.

In order to make a statement about its fresh coffee, Merlo sketched out a unique vision for his flagship retail location where the company roasts and sells about 21 tonnes of coffee per year.

“I had a vision in my head which I sketched out. It’s a bit out of the box, but we wanted to give customers the experience of ordering straight from the roaster,” Merlo said.

Merlo then contacted Flexicon Corporation and outlined his vision. Using this information and Merlo’s sketches, the Flexicon team devised a solution to meet expectations.

The Flexicon FLEXI-DISC Tubular Cable Conveyor (TCC) was chosen for the project because it can gently convey freshly roasted coffee beans through clear polycarbonate tubing, which creates the desired visual effect. The building’s layout required the conveyor line to be routed from the roaster through walls at the back of the building and then around the ceiling of the cafe in the front of the building, where orders are fulfilled. The cable and disc design of the system allows the beans to travel smoothly throughout this complex route.

Gentle conveying of fragile beans

The conveyor gently slides the coffee beans through 50 m of polycarbonate and stainless steel tubing using low-friction polymer discs attached to a stainless steel cable. The discs and cable are driven by a wheel at one end of the circuit and put under tension by a wheel at the other end. This design allows for single or multiple inlets and outlets, and routing of the tubing horizontally, vertically or at any angle.

The gentle action of the conveyor minimises breakage of the fragile roasted beans and is completely enclosed to avoid any product contamination. The Merlo system features 100 mm-diameter tubing routed around the building in an oblong circuit, with four 90° bends around the outside corners and two 45° bends. A pair of inline discharge valves are mounted near the ceiling above the cafe area.

“The TCC was the best way to gently convey the easily damaged, fragile roasted beans while enclosing them for cleanliness and quality control. It also eased my concerns about noise,” Merlo said.

Now, coffee beans moving through the clear tubing capture the attention of cafe customers as soon as they enter the retail store. This makes a strong statement about Merlo’s fresh roasting of beans onsite and presents a unique coffee experience.

When a cup of coffee is ordered, the operator opens the first pneumatically actuated discharge valve in the line, allowing the beans to exit the circuit and drop down a rigid polymer tube into the grinder. If the order is for a takeaway bag of whole beans, the first valve remains closed and the beans travel through it to the second valve, which is opened. At this point, the beans slide down another tube into a hopper above the filling station.

“From our side, it was a pretty fair investment, but I was very happy with the way it worked out, and the return’s been great,” Merlo said. “It wasn’t just the manufacture, but the after-sale service. [Flexicon] walked us through the first service, made sure there were no problems, and [they] were always on hand.”

According to Merlo, the results show that his business is serious about quality fresh espresso. “Now when customers order their fresh espresso beans, they see it coming straight from the roaster, which is awesome.”

Top image credit: iStock.com/tonphai