Background
Oat Co. is a Scottish company that has been specializing in growing oats for eight generations. They utilize a state-of-the-art oat mill and specialize in gluten-free operations. Oat Co. faced a challenge in replacing their existing bucket elevator for rolled oats with a more sterile and dust-free solution.
Customer Requirements
Hygienic: Oat Co. required a conveyor system that would maintain the highest level of hygiene to meet food safety standards. The conveyor solution needed to ensure that the oat-based products were not contaminated with foreign particles during the conveying process.
Minimized Degradation: Friable rolled oats required a gentle handling solution to minimize product degradation during the conveying process.
Customization: Oat Co. required a customized solution to meet their needs. The new conveyor system had to be designed to fit their existing setup and integrate with their current oat mill.
Field of Study
This case allowed Automated Handling Solutions (AHS) brands, Spiroflow and Cablevey, to collaborate and create a customized solution to accommodate the food processing industry’s
high cleanliness and quality control levels. Food processing companies must adhere to strict regulations and guidelines to ensure their products are safe for consumers. Oat Co. sought conveyor systems to efficiently move materials and product blends in a dust and contamination-free environment.
AHS Solution
Working with Oat Co. AHS developed a customized solution consisting of a Cablevey Tubular Drag Conveyor System and Spiroflow Low Loading Bulk Bag Filler with an integrated holding hopper. The Cablevey Tubular Drag Conveyor System gently delivers the rolled oats to the filler in a totally-enclosed environment, minimizing both degradation and dusting. The hygienic conveyor also contains an inspection camera monitoring system and clear inspection ports to ensure proper maintenance. The conveyor tubes can be quickly cleaned using the dry wiper disc system to wipe away accumulating fines and particles.
The Spiroflow Low Loading Bulk Bag Filler contains a special low loading ramp and low profile pallet base to enable unloading filled bulk bags by pallet truck, when a forklift is not available. The filler also minimizes dust with a reverse jet filter and accurately fills by weight with its low level weigh platform to minimize overfilling and product giveaway. Combining the two systems provided Oat Co with an automated ingredient conveying and bulk bag filling system that minimized hazardous dusting, maintained product integrity via gentle handling and met strict hygienic requirements for food handling.
The solution allowed Oat Co. to address its need for a more hygienic, dust-free conveyor system while increasing production efficiency. This has allowed Oat Co. to maintain its strict quality standards and continue providing its customers with high-quality oat-based products.
