Theakstons brew a range of quality beers of which their ‘Old Peculier’ is legendary! Although committed to upholding their traditional brewing methods, in a brewery building which is 136 years old: to meet ever increasing demand, Theaksons recognised that operational improvements would have to be made to those areas, such as materials handling, which would have no effect whatsoever on the quality of their beers.

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.

The management team at confectionery manufacturer Joseph Dobson embarked upon a programme of measures to improve and automate selected elements of their operation. The areas for improvement were chosen on the premise that they must not compromise the heart of their traditional boiled sweet making process.

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.

Thomas Tunnock Ltd is renowned for their famous Camamel Wafers, Snowballs, Camamel Logs, and Tea Cakes

A major part of the success of these products is Tunnock's own brand of chocolate made to a secret recipe from a blend of cocoa liquor, two famous brands of proprietory chocolate, sugar and lethicin.

When conveying Dry Ice Expanded Tobacco (DIET) the main requirement is to maintain very low levels of product degradation, Tobacco companies also need a reliable and cost effective solution. Belt conveyors with multiple drop points can significantly increase degradation so they are less than ideal.

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.