Client Needs: Increase Production Output
Solution Proposed: Automated Mixing Line
Products Used: Storage Silo, Vibratory Feeder, Magnets, Explosion Protection System, Pneumatic Conveyors, Tubular Drag Conveyors, Helix, Metal Detector, Bagging Station
Result: Output increased 166% while reducing labor from 8 people to 4 people and removing the need for a forklift on this line
“This system reduces our labor while over doubling our output.”
HB Specialty Foods produces a wide variety of batters, mixes, breadcrumbs, and other finished baked goods for sale to restaurants and grocers. They specialize in producing gluten-free, keto-friendly, and paleo-friendly foods. They produce their own line in addition to formulating and packaging products for clients. They have plants in Idaho, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.
HB Specialty was looking to automate as much as possible a line that would produce the dry ingredients for a specific mixture.
A new silo was installed to store 170,000 lbs. of flour. The silo is equipped with an explosion isolation valve to eliminate the risk of combustible explosions coming inside the plant or back down to the unloading truck. A magnet was also installed at product entry to catch any metal debris accompanying the flour at the point of delivery. Enclosed in the bottom of the silo is a vibratory discharge bin leading to a centrifugal screener. After the flour makes its way through the screener it is moved by a flex screw inside the plant to a surge bin where it is combined with the rest of the ingredients used for the mix which are delivered to the surge bin via a pneumatic conveyor. The surge bin is seated on weigh cells that allow the correct measurement of ingredients to be combined.
Once the correct amounts of ingredients have been discharged to the surge bin, they are dropped into a 100 cubic foot paddle mixer. After the mix is completed the mixture is discharged into a bin below where it is moved again by a flex screw to a sifter. After being sifted the mixture can be dropped into either a bulk bag unloader or an All-Fill packaging system where the final product is prepared to be sold. A directional helix controls which of the two points the mix is moved to and discharged.
The system is set up to be continuously flowing. Once one batch of ingredients combined in the surge bin is discharged to the mixer, the next batch of ingredients begins to be gathered so that once the mixing is completed another batch is delivered to the mixer. The system was also set up so that it would not be limited to one product but that any flour-based product mix would be able to be processed through this line.
Before this system was put in place, eight employees could process about 60,000 lbs. of finished product per day. With the current system, the daily output is raised 166% to 160,000 lbs. per day while cutting labor from 8 persons to 4 persons and removing the need for a forklift.
