Food-grade Conveyor System Upgrade

Colin Fairweather, CEO, Facet Engineering
MASSIVE PLANT EXPANSION

Facet Engineering recently completed a large project for one of South Africa’s leading vegetable producers. The project entailed a massive plant expansion for their carrot processing line. Producing an estimated 70% of South Africa’s carrots, and processing around 300 tons per day, the plant is required to maintain minimum daily process capacities, whilst maintaining the highest food quality standards.

The project required a network of conveyor systems used throughout the process facility for the receiving, washing, sizing, sorting, packing and conveying of the product. The facility upgrades and plant extensions were installed over a period of eighteen months.

PRE-PLANNING & CLIENT ENGAGEMENT

We worked in close consultation with the client to understand their product handling requirements and then developed a completely new and upgraded conveyor system for the cleaning, processing and bagging of product. Due to the nature of the plant upgrades, a great deal of pre-planning was required, and was undertaken with regular engagement with the client.

Our design team produced detailed computer-generated 3D models of the plant prior to manufacturing which allowed virtual walk-throughs of the plant enabling the design of the facility to be fine-tuned to meet the exact specifications of the client.

The operating environment and food hygiene standards necessitated the entire conveyor system to be manufactured from 304 stainless steel, supplied with food-grade plastic modular conveyor belting and integrated direct geared motor drive arrangements. A large emphasis was placed on the standardization of the conveyors and components, greatly facilitating the ongoing maintenance and spares requirements within the plant.

3D DESIGN MODELS

The main challenge of the project involved integrating our conveyor system with other existing infrastructure and process equipment, which was successful due to the work done during planning phase and the computerized 3D design models.

The conveyors supplied included, incline and decline belt conveyors, multi-tiered product packing stations, carousel conveyors, transfer and discharge chutes, product baths, holding tanks and various conveyor attachments such as sorting gates and lane splitters.

DESIGNED AND MANUFACTURED IN-HOUSE

In addition to the extensive range of conveyors, the project also required special access gantries, walkways, platforms and additional custom support structures, which were manufactured from galvanized steel in our facility, to be incorporated into the range of machinery supplied.

The entire conveyor system was approximately 630m long, comprising of more than 60 conveyors, supplied with a range of ancillary equipment and support structures. Our design and manufacturing expertise, coupled with our close collaboration with the client ensured that the project was a great success. We produced a system that met all of the process requirements and saw a vast increase in the plant output production capacity.

Facet Engineering specializes in the design and manufacture of conveyor systems to suit a wide range of product applications and handling requirements. We servicing many all industries and sectors of the market. From individual conveyors to complete turnkey conveyor systems, we can do it all, and we pride ourselves on being able to solve just about any handling or conveying challenge.

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