Posted by Karl Seidel on Fri, Apr 30, 2010 @ 04:30 PM
Engineering a Gentle Touch
If everyone who delights in—or depends on!—their morning cuppa joe understood the complexities and lengths to which coffee plant engineers and plant managers go to ensure those coffee beans are conveyed with loving care from green to grind, and from package to store shelves or café counters, well… that will never happen, will it?
But coffee plant engineers and plant managers still have to do it, and do it as efficiently, cleanly, and quietly as possible. So, increasingly, coffee processing plants are turning to tubular drag conveyors to meet those goals.
Throughput thought through
Tubular drag conveyors easily outperform belts, bucket elevators, screw conveyors, and even pneumatic and aero-mechanical systems when it comes to the delicate balancing act plant managers have to perform between maintaining high throughput of product while keeping the fragile, freshly roasted beans from damage and keeping rejection rates to a bare minimum.
With multiple access points, tubular conveying systems facilitate the ability to clean in place and make performing routine maintenance simple.
Because tubular drag conveyors don’t use air to convey materials, they not only don’t cause dust, they contain it, dropping or knocking it off as the materials glide through the plant. That means less time spent on cleaning and less exposure to hazardous combustion than legacy systems.
Quieter is cheaper too
Without large volumes of air being blasted or sucked through the tube, operational noise levels are substantially lower with tubular drag conveyors than older methods, increasing worker safety and trimming compensation claims and insurance premiums along the way.
Quieter, less complicated plant conveyors—fewer moving parts—also translate to lower energy operating costs and lower labor costs. But while most customers won’t appreciate that any more than they do your efforts to get them a good cup of coffee at a great price, management certainly will.