Nut butter manufacturer boosts output by 500%
The saving, from ease of cleaning and more efficient performance, has paved the way for the company to meet escalating sales growth in the order of 20 to 30% a year.
The original production line gave the company a processing capacity of just 20 to 30 jars a minute, since it relied on conveyors to move hundreds of buckets of peanuts, almonds, cashews and sesame seeds to various production areas throughout the plant. This conveyor design was also detrimental to productivity, since each bucket had to be dismantled and cleaned between product changes to retain Class 1 allergen classification a process that takes around two hours.
As demand for product escalated, the company realised it needed to boost output by increasing production rates while reducing sanitation downtime between batches.
The company invested in Flexicon flexible stainless steel food-grade screw conveyors: two 4.6m flexible screw conveyors with stainless steel tubes were installed in the roasting areas to convey raw products, such as nuts and sesame seeds, to the roasters.
Each flexible screw conveyor consists of a stainless steel spiral inside an enclosed tube, which is driven by an IP65 motor at the discharge end.
The site manager says: "The simple design and operation of the Flexicon equipment easily outperforms the bucket-style conveyors: 150 jars per minute compared with the previous maximum of 30 jars."
A removable clean-out cap at the intake end of the conveyor tube allows for both reversing of the screw to evacuate any residual material and removal of the flexible screw for sanitising and flushing of the conveyor tube, in just 45 minutes compared with two hours for each bucket-style conveyor.
Five Flexicon bulk bag dischargers were also installed as part of the upgrade, allowing bulk raw supplies delivered in bags to be discharged and held in a hopper in readiness to feed its associated stainless steel screw conveyors.
Contact: Flexicon Tel: 01227 374710
