Dublin, Ireland based Gem Pack Foods Ltd are both a Contract Packer and provider of an extensive range of own brand ‘Gem’ and ‘Gem Gourmet’ products - several of which are simply repacked from bulk supplies but many of which are proprietary mixes.

The product in question is Premier Foods’ SMASH Instant Mashed Potato. SMASH ranks among the UK’s best known consumer brands confirmed by the fact that its ‘Martians’ advertisement has been voted the best TV ad of all time.

Solutech Ltd of Winsford, Cheshire is a small company operating as a specialist food grade liquid blending contractor, currently despatching around 12,000 tonnes of blended liquids a year to the food and beverage industry.

Carroll & Meynell Ltd, a leading manufacturer of electrical transformers, moved to new premises to accommodate considerable growth in their business. Further growth caused them to re-think their production methods. The handling of the fine silica sand used to ‘pot’ transformers was a major bottleneck in their production line.

Two ingredients, (potato flake and crumpet mix) needed to be conveyed from bulk bags through an existing wall and into two mixers in the room beyond. The mixers were situated 10m apart and needed to be fed at precise rates in order to ensure compliance with batch recipes.

The use of dry powdered ingredients can cause a number of problems for producers of ceramic goods.

A reliance on manual handling can cause dust to be released into the atmosphere and operator involvement can be excessive when trying to dose the correct ratios of materials for batch recipes.

Spiroflow provided the solution for a major chemicals company needing a bulk bag discharger that could overcome a distinct lack of headroom and incorporate a number of customised features to batch silicon carbide into a mixing tank. Spiroflow solved the problem by designing a machine with a special low profile hoist and unloading station operating at a height of only 3.2m, compared to the head room of at least 5m required by most bulk bag dischargers on the market when an integral hoist is included on the machine.

Savings in downtime and material costs plus improved, faster production have been achieved by Colfix at its Dublin bitumen processing plant by replacing a manually-fed rigid screw conveyor with a Spiroflow bulk bag handling system. The new equipment comprises a Spiroflow Type 2 bulk bag discharger and a Type 5 low loading bulk bag discharger, each having a 2m Model 120 flexible screw conveyor which meters product to a 50 litre transition hopper.