Cold turkey for vacuum booster set
A
Rietschle Thomas product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jun 28, 2002
Chilling out is probably the last thing on a turkey's mind at Xmas, but it's a way of life at Brandons Poultry plant in Abergavenny, South Wales.
Chilling out is probably the last thing on a turkey's mind at Xmas, but it's a way of life at Brandons Poultry plant in Abergavenny, South Wales, which processes 200,000-odd birds destined for the nation's dinner tables at Easter and Christmas.
In a world dominated by the supermarkets, product quality and freshness are critical for food processors, and as befits a state-of-the-art operation, the ambient temperature in the packaging hall at Brandons is maintained at a chilly 4C.
It's a tough environment for packaging machinery; even the vacuum pump had to be fitted with a heater in the oil discharge box, to reduce the viscosity of the circulating oil.
A Rietschle Vacfox 700 vacuum pump and booster set supplies a custom-built Captech packaging station, jointly developed by Brandons and the New Zealand OEM.
Consistent, fine vacuum levels are critical to the packaging process, which involves a complex gas-flushing sequence.
The end result is a packaged product with a long shelf life - ideal for the supermarket environment.
At periods of peak demand, the new line runs for 24 hours/day on a continuous basis, producing up to 1000 crates per day.
"It has taken us a few years to build up the technical experience needed to develop such a sophisticated line", explains Engineering Manager Glynn Moses, "but the vacuum system is working faultlessly.
We are now achieving the best production results since the company began 11 years ago".
Rietschle's Vacfox 700 pump is a smooth running, oil-flooded rotary vane design, with a capacity of 700 m3/h and an ultimate vacuum of 0.1mbar (abs).
During the working shift, the booster is run continuously, with the vacuum pump operating under manual control during each packaging cycle.
A key feature of the pump for continuous food processing applications is the wear-resistant (cast aluminium alloy) rotor blades, which carry a five-year warranty.
The Vacfox 700 also has a highly efficient oil separation system, with automatic oil recirculation.
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