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Dryer Division Sold In Management Buyout
- Product Dryers
- Nut and Seed Roasting Lines
- Coolers
- Product Cutters
- Belt Conveyors/Elevators/Vibratory Conveyors
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News:
PLANET FLOWLINE DRYERS
Within the last 12 months, we have supplied a range of Dryers to customers worldwide, including Israel, Spain, Turkey, three for Russia and three for customers in the UK. A total of nine machines.
Operating on extruded snack foods and coated cereals, the machines varied in size from 300 to 1000kg/hr and included both single and triple pass designs.
The Dryers supplied utilised side chain driven woven mesh belt systems. The mesh sizes, chosen from a range, are product dependent, allowing small particulates to be handled if required, which was the case for 3 of the machines.
A band washing system was supplied to one machine, allowing sugar coatings to be dried. This unit washes the conveyor using a water spray system and brushes to clean top and bottom surfaces of the conveyor and an air knife to remove the water before the belt re-enters the dryer. It can be either run continuously or intermittently dependent on product.
If required our dryers can be fully washed internally. Stainless steel construction is standard.
As full access is provided all around the machine using full length access doors and hatches, cleaning and maintenance can be carried out quickly and easily.
THREE MORE FULLY AUTOMATED PET MANUFACTURING LINES INSTALLED IN THE USA
As reported in the last edition of our magazine we continue to carry out an extensive programme of installations of Zecchetti PET Air Conveyor and Palletization systems with Western Container Corporation in the USA, one of America’s most modern PET manufacturing organisations and a subsidiary of Coca-Cola. We have now completed the installation of twenty four lines with WCC.
Our latest installation at Houston is by far the most sophisticated PET manufacturing plant we have built so far. It utilises three new Zecchetti EasyPal high speed machines for the palletisation of these difficult to handle containers, with speeds in excess of 70,000 containers per hour.
We believe that the Houston operation is probably the most productive operation for the manufacture of PET containers installed anywhere in the world.
The installations have been carried out under the supervision of Planet Flowline Engineers working with English contractors who have now developed special skills in the erection of these complicated lines.
ANOTHER SPECIAL PURPOSE ROBOT ON PET BOTTLES AT AMCOR
Following the success of our first Zecchetti Robot installation at Amcor’s Wrexham factory in 2004, we received a second contract for another unit to palletise Amcor’s very wide range of difficult to handle empty PET bottles.
The very versatile Zecchetti Robotic system, receives bottles directly from the blow moulder, collates them into rows and then picks and places them on to an awaiting pallet 2 rows at a time. There they are stabilised before tier sheets, trays and top frames are applied automatically by the same robot, once the pallet is complete it is automatically transferred to a strapper and then onto a shuttle to Amcor’s centralised shrink wrapping station.
All this is done automatically with no labour , lights out, job done.
MAJOR STERILISER INSTALLATION AT WESTLER FOODS LIMITED
We were naturally very pleased to have been selected against fierce competition for the supply of 8 Surdry Sterilisers for Westler Foods new state of the art installation at Malton in Yorkshire.
It was especially rewarding because we were selected on the grounds of technical superiority, having carried out extensive heat distribution tests on Westler products on production machines at Mackle Petfoods in Northern Ireland which proved to be better than any previously achieved.
The machines are made by steriliser specialist Surdry of Spain, who we have represented for the past 18 months and the installation consists of 4, 5 cage static machines and 4, 4 cage rotary units all of which have the same size cage.
Surdry, who are based in Bilbao, have built up an enviable reputation for building high quality stainless steel machines at competitive prices, which they have achieved by keeping to standard profiles and avoiding the temptation to build too many specials. The systems which operate primarily using steam in an atomised water spray environment, have big advantages in terms of heat penetration, even heat distribution throughout the retort and the containers and very stable pressure control during come up, hold and cooling.
The installation at Westlers is supplied complete with the Sterinet retort supervisory data acquisition and management system, which is located in the central laboratories, to monitor and record each process as it takes place and to supply over 500 different variations of recipes and programmes to the retorts for the wide range of high quality products produced by Westlers.
Before the production machines arrived on site, Planet provided a research and development retort to enable Westlers food technologists to establish the optimum process for each of their products, whether they be in cans, glass jars, pouches or plastic containers.
Planet Flowline are indebted to John Mackle of Northern Ireland for the use of their fully automated Surdry system for proving the heat distribution features of the machines in a production environment.
NEW UNSCRAMBLING DEVELOPMENTS FROM FAVA ARTEMIO
FAVA have launched two new state of the art bottle unscrambling machines.
The Model 2050 AP has an automatic size changeover system, which allows the operator, at the touch of a button, to change from one container size to another.
Containers are fed to selectors on a rotary carousel via a counter rotating cone, as with other machines. However, the containers can enter the vertical selectors either base or neck first, which improves the selection efficiency. Once in the selector, the pincers softly adjust to the pre-set bottle dimensions and a camera detects upside down bottles, which are then rotated by 180° before being released onto a discharge conveyor. This conveyor also automatically adjusts to accommodate container sizes.
This model unscrambler has a running speed of 15,500 bottles per hour, based on a 0.33 litre bottle. The main advantages of an automatically adjustable machine means that changeover from one container to the other can be carried out quickly and simply without the need for changeparts.
Another new machine from FAVA is the Model 1600E which is a low priced entry level machine, however still capable of operating at speeds of 17,000 bottles per hour on .010 litre containers.
This machine is based on the standard range of machines that are available from FAVA, however has been value engineered to keep prices to a minimum.
FAVA have been operating since the early 1960’s and have the expertise to offer turnkey solutions for container storage, unscrambling, orientation and conveying of plastic containers of any shape and size.
HIGH SPEED PRESERVES FILLER INSTALLED IN PREMIER FOODS, HISTON
Following the successful installation of several high speed Filler Seamer Groups at Premier Foods canning factories last year, we were delighted to receive further orders in the past 12 months for filling machines for a variety of applications at their Bury St Edmunds and Histon sites.
For the production of their high quality range of preserves at Histon, Premier selected a 30 Head Rotary Piston Filler to operate at speeds in excess of 450 containers per minute on a range of jars up to 2lbs. The machine was integrated into an existing line and close coupled to a Glass Jar Invertor Rinser, which was driven by the Filler itself.
The machine is handling several jar sizes having different diameters and shapes. Changeover is easily carried out in a very short time, as the infeed scroll does not have to be replaced and each filling station has adjustable pincers to hold the jars with self adjustment, so that no change parts are required to cover the entire range of containers.
The height of the filling carousel and the volume of fill are automatically adjusted by calling up the product/container code from the operator touch screen.
The valves can fill homogonous products and also jams and marmalades with particulates of fruit, achieving very high accuracy with small standard deviation.
The machine is designed for quick and efficient cleaning, this being achieved by the elimination of sharp corners that can come into contact with the product and using FDA certificated materials and seals of the latest design.
At Premier Foods Bury St Edmunds site, another 30 Valve Piston Filler was delivered for operation on their range of sauces and two Vacuum Fillers have been delivered for operation on their pickle lines.
Our range of Vacuum, Volumetric and Piston Fillers are extremely well manufactured to very hygienic standards, at competitive prices and are proving very popular with the Food Processing Industry in the British Isles.
