Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1282913
September 2020 / 43 CASE HISTORY ADVERTISEMENT Flexicon Corp. 888-353-9426 +1 610-814-2400 sales@flexicon.com www.flexicon.com LARGE SCALE BULK HANDLING PROJECT BOOSTS GLUTEN- FREE FOOD PRODUCTION AT BAKERY ON MAIN EAST HARTFORD, CONNECTI- CUT –To increase capacity of Bakery On Main's gluten-free foods, Michael Smulders, the company's owner, built a new facility with separate granola and oatmeal production processes. The engi- neering firm he commissioned to handle the overall design worked closely with the Project Engineering Division of Flex- icon to create a fully integrated system based on the company's FLEXI-DISC ® Tubular Cable Conveyor (TCC) system. The TCC system gently slides mate- rial through smooth stainless tub- ing with low-friction polymer discs attached to a stainless steel cable. The granola handling system includes two FLEXI-DISC TCC cir- cuits, a TIP-TITE ® Box Dump Station, a TWIN-CENTERPOST™ Bulk Bag Filler and two BULK-OUT ® Bulk Bag Dischargers. Major granola ingredients are discharged from an extruder into the Bulk Bag Filler. Palletized bags are then transported by forklift to two BULK-OUT ® BFC Series Dischargers, each with a canti- levered I-beam, electric hoist and trolley for loading and unloading bulk bags. From each discharger, major granola ingredients flow onto a vibratory feeder into a 6 in. (150 mm) diameter Tubular Cable Conveyor. Both dischargers rest on load cells that measure weight loss and signal the vibratory feeders to stop when a pre-programmed weight has been transferred to a mixer. Minor ingredients are manually deposited through a small hopper into the conveyor, which discharges the combined ingredients into the mixer. Blended ingredients are fed into an oven and then dis- charged into a vibratory feeder that discharges into a 4 in. (100 mm) diameter TCC, which feeds into two packaging machines equipped with level sensors that signal a PLC to maintain surge hopper fill levels by starting and stop- ping the conveyor. Excess granola discharged into open boxes is re-introduced at the intake end of the TCC using a Flexicon TIP-TITE ® Box Dumper. Ingredients for the oatmeal process received in bulk bags are emptied by a BULK-OUT ® BFC Series Bulk Bag Discharger onto a vibratory feeder that flows into a TCC circuit that, in turn, discharges into another mixer. Blended ingredients are then auger-fed to a packaging machine. A second 4 in. (100 mm) diameter TCC circuit, fed by a TIP-TITE Box Dumper, hopper and vibratory feeder, sup- plies a second packaging machine. Throughout the design, engineering and installation of this totally automated and integrated system, a team of engineers from the Flexicon Project Engineering Division worked closely with the independent engineering firm commissioned by Bakery On Main to handle the overall design. "The Flexicon people were detail oriented," says Smulders. "They had all the engineering resources needed to tailor the system to our exact needs, including suspend- ing everything except the fillers and dischargers from the ceiling in order to minimize our space requirements. They were responsive and very easy to work with." In the first oatmeal TCC circuit, ingredients from the cantilevered hoist style bulk bag discharger exit through a full flow inline discharge adapter into the mixer below. An inclined screw conveyor moves the mixed ingredients to a packaging machine (left). Transparent section of TCC circuit allows operators to observe system performance and fill level of "pockets." Granola tubular cable conveyor circuit: Minor ingredients are manually added through hopper at right while major ingredients are metered from two bulk bag dischargers into the tubular conveyor that feeds the mixer (background).