More hygienic conveyors

THE Iso-Flo conveyor from Key Technology boasts a number of upgrades to its design. It carries oil-free electric vibrating motors, an innovative patent-pending vector lock screen clamp, elastomer isolators, scalloped flat bars, plate frame design, and a unique internal ground arm. The Standard Utility Shakers ideal for processing fruits, vegetables, potato strips, and potato chips, have these sanitary features.

The oil-free electric vibrating motor eliminates the gear box, drive belts, and motor oil from the process. This out-of-balance motor improves equipment hygiene by eliminating the oil that can inadvertently contaminate product, especially when the equipment is mounted over other equipment.

A hybrid design allows the vector lock screen clamp to perform multiple functions simultaneously. This patent-pending mechanism, used to secure an Iso-Flo conveyor’s screen in place, is easier to open and close. It allows an operator to lock and unlock a screen with one hand and no tools to swap out screens more quickly and easily.cranberry business well. Today, he calls himself a “for hire” sweet and dry maker, and he’s involved in every aspect of Badger State’s operations.

“We grow, clean, store, process, and sell cranberry concentrate as well as sweet and dry,” said Mr Gardener, a former trucker and dairy farmer. “In 1992, we started with two and a half acres, and we’ve grown to 1,100 acres of cranberry beds.”

Sweet and dry is a term that refers to the way cranberries are processed. First, juice from fresh cranberries is extracted and infused with sugar to balance the fruit’s tartness. Then, the remaining fruit and skins are soaked with the sweetened juice. After a thorough soaking, the sweetened skins are dried to make a product similar to raisins.

On any given day, Mr Gardener can be seen hauling cranberries in and out of Ocean Spray. It’s a business he enjoys in a close-knit community where trust and integrity are paramount. It was last November that Gardener decided to take Badger State Fruit Processing to another level. “We’ve watched the industry grow and decided there was no better time to make this kind of investment.”

Choosing the right dryer for the job

At each stage of processing, cranberries have dramatically different characteristics that require unique handling conditions. In the beginning, the cranberries are wet and sticky. Near the end, they are dry and tacky. This makes sanitation and airflow uniformity critical for processors of infused fruit, not to mention uptime. And because the juice mixture that sweetens the cranberries has the consistency of syrup, the equipment must stay clean in every part of the process. This is why the majority of cranberry processors in Wisconsin use Bühler Aeroglide’s AeroDry.

“Most processors dry cranberries with a multi-stage dryer,” said Dave Reynolds, market manager at Bühler. “Customers prefer the AeroDry because it offers operating flexibility. Process air temperature, humidity, airflow rate and retention time can be independently controlled for each stage. It also offers highproduction capability and product reorientation during thermal processing, while making efficient use of floor space.”

As the cranberry raisins move along in automated fashion, each conveyor is returned external to the dryer to allow the belt to be washed during operation, and this keeps production going. The sanitary sloped floAir Jordan XI 11 Shoes