Quality and technology at the service of customers
IMF, founded in 1990 and based in Occhiobello in the province of Rovigo, designs and manufactures innovative and highly technological roasting machines and plants.
The Occhiobello company was initially small with great potential, before being taken over in 2010 with commitment and enthusiasm by majority shareholder Alessandro Garbin, quickly leading IMF to become an industry leader in the national and international market.
An ongoing positive trend, along with the continuous implementation and search for new technologies and cutting-edge systems, over the years has led IMF to collaborate with some of the most important and renowned brands in the industry, including the famous Italian and now world-leading brand Caffè Borbone.
Founded in 1997 in Naples as a coffee roasting and packaging company, it specialised in the production of compatible pods and capsules, becoming one of the most important producers.
Its rapid growth sparked the interests of major investors, and in 2018 it became part of the Italmobiliare Group, which acquired 60% of the company.
Caffè Borbone synonymous with growth for IMF
As mentioned at the start, until being taken over in 2010 by Alessandro Garbin as majority shareholder with another two minority shareholders, IMF had only three employees. Today, it has more than 40. The company has since acquired additional space and buildings, becoming highly structured in terms of production, administration and management, and has recorded an impressive increase in the performance of its machinery and production.
Alessandro Garbin (IMF majority shareholder): “Our technology guarantees high energy efficiency and low atmospheric emissions thanks to the use of a single burner, the Vortex patent, boasting an integrated afterburner device. High reliability together with a guarantee of quality and consistent production ensures impeccable performance and a result that highlights the best characteristics of the coffee itself. Moreover, we can always be reached by our clients thanks to the online remote assistance service, allowing us to offer an after-sales service par excellence. In addition to the honour of being selected by a brand like Caffè Borbone, what gratified us most was our reaffirmation. Caffè Borbone has repeatedly renewed their trust in us over the years. The partnership with Caffè Borbone is a source of great pride for us, proving that the commitment, perseverance and continuous progress we have achieved in recent years is leading us in the right direction. Working with such an important brand and succeeding in meeting its needs is greatly satisfying for us and an incentive to keep doing better. We have developed several projects for them over the years, integrating high-tech machines equipped with dedicated roasting software, with Caffè Borbone’s own management system.”
2013: first collaboration between Caffè Borbone and IMF
The year 2013 marked the first encounter between Massimo Renda, executive chairman of Caffè Borbone, and Alessandro Garbin, majority shareholder of IMF, for the purchase of the first machine.
At the time, Caffè Borbone was already one of the best-known brands nationwide, while IMF was steadily growing. This first successful purchase sparked an ongoing collaboration and deep-rooted trust that led to the sale of additional equipment to Caffè Borbone, and ultimately a custom-built system. The two Made in Italy companies had always shared a common goal, that of guaranteeing increasingly high-quality standards with an essential focus on ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY.
The new machines guarantee roasting of the highest quality, reliability and excellent energy performance, reducing the impact of post-roasting emissions in line with European regulations.
Massimo Renda (Executive chairman of Caffè Borbone): “With IMF, I sensed right away that a long-lasting partnership might be established that would lead us to develop new projects where we would play a leading role together, and so it was. With the aim of creating new solutions that guarantee ever-higher quality standards and cutting-edge technologies, it was with much enthusiasm that we began to share our views and regularly exchange ideas in an effort to find solutions perfectly suited to our reality.
The aim was to guarantee consumers high-quality coffee. The coffee roasting process, for example, which is the result of an ongoing collaboration between the two companies, has now reached extremely high levels in terms of quality and process technology.”
The latest achievement stemming from the collaboration between IMF and CAFFÈ BORBONE is the automated green coffee silos plant, integrated with the software. These are a ‘tailor-made’ plant and machines that cater to the needs of the Naples-based company, directed by Massimo Renda, who, thanks to his experience and the support of innovative and reliable companies such as IMF, succeeds in creating increasingly high-performance solutions in terms of quality and technology.
IMF Roasters in China – Daily Routine Roasters:
The launch of the flavor planet, let more “coffee lovers” explore more possibilities of coffee flavor with us!
An Interview with the IMF Chinese Roasters: Daily Routine Roasters
Sincere thanks to Chai Yuheng, founder of Daily Routine Roasters for accepting our interview, thank you very much!
I met Suci Shi (IMF general agent in China) at an accidental Shanghai Coffee Festival.
We chose a load suitable for the current demand, 15 kg. After purchasing the machine,
I didn’t know that the IMF roasting machine has a built-in afterburner. During the process of obtaining the license, the new factory must strictly comply with the food factory standards and environmental emission standards. When I asked Suci what post-combustion equipment would be better suited for IMF, Suci said, “Oh my god, the IMF roaster you ordered has its own built in afterburner, which is environmentally friendly and energy-saving. You have bought the machine, why you even don’t know it.” Of course, I am very happy, but also a little doubt.
I have some understanding of the hot air roaster before, and I have also used a small hot air sample equipment. I think that the hot air roaster can bring higher roasting efficiency, experience more flavor expressions, reduce the performance of bad roasting flavor. Cleaning and maintenance of this kind of machines will be easier compared with traditional roasters. On this basis, I don’t need to buy an additional afterburner for IMF, this is definitely the roaster I want. So, I pay for this machine and look forward to receive it.
After waiting for a year (delayed by the epidemic), the equipment finally arrived in our hands.
Q1: Before using the IMF roasting machine, what is your understanding of the hot air roaster?
A: The roasters who were exposed to hot air in the early days felt that the roasting efficiency of hot air was too high, which may lead to the loss of flavor too quickly, and only in the short term of fresh roasting can better flavor be presented.
Q2: When starting a new factory, what are the expected requirements for exhaust emissions?
A: We hope that the emissions of our entire roasting are environmentally friendly enough, smokeless and odorless, and do not want to cause trouble to the surrounding neighbors, so afterburning of emissions treatment is one thing we must do.
Q3: When starting a new factory, what are the preset requirements for the fully automated production of equipment?
A: For factories, stability of our products is our greatest pursuit. It does not mean that full automation is a commercial product. China’s automation industry is very mature, and the same is true for coffee. We can achieve a good taste experience at the same time. It can also take into account safer and more standardized food production processes and consistent production. The ideal state is to realize the visualization and unmanned automatic roasting process.
Q4: After using the IMF machine for a period of time, what are the advantages that you like the most?
A: In 2020-2021, we found that many people can not accept the acidity of coffee. At this stage, I am thinking how to minimize the acidity of coffee, and I have also asked some foreign friends about low acidity, even if we roast the coffee to mid-dark roasting degree, you can also feel the obvious acidity. There seems to be no better way except for the second roasting. Therefore, in the selection of products, the priority is to choose low-acid coffee for blending. At the earliest, the traditional roaster was adjusted to a low speed for 25 minutes and roasted to French roasting degree. After discarding some flavor substances, it was found that a large amount of acid can indeed be reduced, but it also bring in more bad roasted notes and break down some of the acid from dark roasts, just less intense, but not very pleasant. After changing the roaster later, it was adjusted to 16min roasting, and the roasting rhythm was adjusted, and the acidity could also be reduced, but there would still be a heavier roasting taste.
The biggest impression of IMF to me is that under the condition of full load of 15kg, it can take into account the fast roasting rhythm at the same time, while retaining the flavor substance, reducing the performance of acid, and reducing the appearance of roasting flavor.
The first crack is carried out at about 7min, the development is 5:30min, and the whole roasting time of the second crack of dense pink #50 is 12:30min to end the roasting.
After a period of testing and feedback from customers, it was found that this roasting method actually increased the density of coffee beans. The roasted color value is darker than the traditional roasted color value, and the extraction speed is faster. It requires a finer grind and a longer extraction time to achieve the full flavor profile, like a mellow dark cocoa drink. After continuous testing within a month, no loss of flavor was found. We speculate that higher density reduces the size of the pore size of the broken cell wall after roasting coffee beans, retains more extractable substances, reduces the difficulty of extraction, and reduces the fault tolerance rate. Becomes high.
High sweetness and low acidity is the result I am looking for.
Another major advantage of the IMF roasting machine is that the afterburner will keep working at a high temperature of more than 500 ℃, and during the roasting process, I can decide how much energy is sent to the furnace in which section, which acts on the instantaneous reaction of roasting and determines the acidity. Performance. The exhaust air in the furnace will be reused through the burner to meet the needs of environmental protection and energy saving.
The biggest advantage should be the roasting efficiency, automatic preheating, automatic bean feeding, automatic roasting, automatic cooling of beans, which brings us a lot of convenience. With the traditional roaster, I will spend nearly 1 hour to preheat the machine and the roasting interval should be cooled to a constant value, and then heated up for roasting, and the machine should be cooled for 30 minutes. The heat engine of IMF is about 15 minutes, and the roasting can be carried out. The error of the roasting rhythm of the first crack and the second crack will be about 20-30 seconds, and the roasting difference time after the second crack will be within 5 seconds. For the color value, the difference is ±1, and the cooling of the machine is also about 15min. It saves us a lot of work time, which allows us to focus more on recipe development, quality control and production, and interactive customer feedback.
Ananas Roastery, rising specialty coffee company in Saudi Arabia
IMF met Mohammed Jowhar, founder of Ananas Roastery, an emerging and fast-growing brand in Specialty coffee roasting in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Mohammed defines himself as a coffee artist with the goal of raising the local coffee community culture quality and awareness to compete with the different global realities. In an exclusive interview, the owner of Ananas Roastery speaks about choosing IMF roasters.
“It is important to have an innovative and eco-sustainable technology that guarantees high quality standards, uniformity in production, monitoring and control.”
Did you make any specific studies or did you learn by yourself?
I achieved the intermediate level international roasting certification at the Specialty Coffee Association in Saudi Arabia. A level, for those like me who had already had experience in the sector, much more focused on the working environment and with higher requirements.
How do you know IMF? Why IMF?
I got to know IMF through YouTube platform, where I first saw the company videos. Right from the start I felt passionate and informed about who IMF is and how it works. I was really impressed by how the roasters work and operate. Their innovative technology allows a better production and consistency, as well have perfect profiling and total control.
Would you recommend IMF to other roasters?
Sure! After trying many other roasters I’m happy to say I would definitely recommend IMF to any roasting company seeking top of the range machinery and unmatched technology, especially to those looking for scalable solutions to be integrated with complementary equipment in the future, for upgrading production and workflow standards. Last but not least, what truly impressed me was the human relationship with the whole IMF team, always ready to answer my questions and support me in my project.
Total control for Specialty coffee roasting
RM15 Specialty Roaster with Ananas Roastery in Dammam, Saudi Arabia
Born with an Industrial Soul set on productivity purposes, able to easily process tons of coffee batch after batch with unmatched output consistency and reliability, IMF has been increasingly focusing on specialty coffee treatment, a natural development in order to fulfill every need related to roasting and profiling of highest quality single origins.
The innovative convection System, complete of integrated afterburner for emission treatment, patented Vortex Valve for air blending, recirculation of air, allows total control of roasting procedures, enabling the operator to accurately and precisely set airflow parameters as well as rotational speed of the drum to gain the best profile for each single quality or preparation.
RM15 Specialty Roaster with Ananas Roastery in Dammam, Saudi Arabia
BeanScene speaks to Roastquip Managing Director Will Notaras about his longstanding relationship with IMF roasters and the importance of sustainable roasting solutions.
IMF‘s modern-designed roasters allow for efficent and uniform high volume roasting batch after batch.
When it comes to purchasing roasting equipment, speed and consistency are one thing, but environmental considerations are another. To Roastquip Managing Director Will Notaras, climate change is everyone’s responsibility.
“It’s almost impossible to not have this in mind when looking to install a new roaster,”
says Will.
“Not only do IMF roasters reduce greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but they also save roasting companies enormous amounts of money in energy costs, so it’s a win-win situation.”
Innovation and sustainability have always characterised the profile of IMF, Italian leader in the design and construction of coffee roasters and turnkey industrial plants for the coffee industry, with a focus on nowadays environmental and energy matters.
The specificity of the technology of the Occhiobello company lies in the hot air roasting system, which guarantees great control, constancy and precision of the coffee roasting process, thanks to the integrated abatement system ensuring low emission levels, in line with the worldwide reference limits. In fact, IMF roasters present a single combustion chamber, positioned separately from the machine, having two functions: heating up the roasting air to be sent to the drum, treating at the same time emissions to the atmosphere, with significant savings on consumption. The secret of constancy in production is given by the ability to manage and regularly regulate the air flow and temperature. Agility and flexibility in controlling these two variables make the IMF machines capable of roasting tons of coffee, cycle after cycle, with absolute repeatability and reliability in the reproduction of the chosen roasting profiles.
