Anderson Engineering have recently completed a project for the Kerry Foods Group who produce and blend dry ingredients for the food industry. The plant will be used to blend and package dry ingredients which will be used for food flavouring. The project involved the design, fabrication, installation, and commissioning of two fully GMP Complaint blending lines, one with a two-ton capacity and the other with a half-ton capacity. For the installation, the team had to travel into Africa. The installation was done in August 2022 with the commissioning visit to follow later in the year. The blending lines comprised a full set of equipment with all product contact components specified as Stainless Steel Gr 316L and non-contact parst as Gr 304.  The complete set up entailed a Ribbon blender, screw feeder, rotary sieve, inline-magnetic separator for the removal of potential ferrous contaminants, filling machine, automatic bag sealer, metal detector, and scales.  These lines were supported by an in-house designed Stainless Steel support structure that stood 5 meters high. The structure has two levels to allow for access to all equipment for operation and maintenance. A dust extraction to manage fugitive dust in the process completed the design. Background In 2018, […]

During the manufacturing of two pasteurisers for Nestle Mossel Bay, alternative projects were discussed, including the screw feeder project. The objective for the screw conveyors was to transfer milk powder from the outlet of a vibrating sieve to the inlet of a magnet and metal detector which then fed into the packing hopper. The project had some unique challenges to overcome. The factory layout has height constrains which forced detailed design consideration as well as having to transfer around a corner which resulted in us incorporating two screw feeders with one feeding into the other. This all had to be done while being able to convey at a volumetric flow rate of 9 tons an hour (product density of 500 kg/m3). The specific client requirement was to have scrape detection between the rotating shaft and screw housing. This could only be done using two options; vibration analysis and electrical continuity testing. Vibration analysis had been used in another Nestle factory and the feedback from this, was that there were too many false events due to the sensitivity of the system, and it was a costly installation. As a result, the electrical continuity testing option was explored and the major challenge […]