ndboo...“l ove them like family, feed them like family.” that’s the motto of pet food maker...
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TABLE OF CONTENTSFeed Them Like Family 4
The pet food market follows many of the trends of the human food
market, but with tail-wagging sales increases.
Using 3D Level Sensors to Solve the Toughest
Food Storage Challenges 11
Pet Food Manufacturers Seek Balance 14
Discover Hidden Profit In Your Rejected Product 17
Conveying Mechanically vs. Conveying Pneumatically 20
Tubular Drag Cable Conveyors are Topdog for
Conveying Dry Pet Foods 23
AD INDEXTuthill • tuthillvacuumblower.com 3
BinMaster • binmaster.com 10
Admix • admix.com 13
Bunting • buntingmagnetics.com 16
Vac-U-Max • vac-u-max.com 19
Cablevey • cablevey.com 22
Martin Sprocket • martinsprocket.com 25
eHANDBOOK: 2
www.FoodProcessing.com
“Love them like family, feed them like
family.”
That’s the motto of pet food maker Blue
Buffalo Co., but it nicely captures the cur-
rent sentiment of pet owners … and all
makers of pet food. Pet food is a $26 billion
a year business, growing at 6 percent and
showing no signs of slowing, according to
market research firm Packaged Facts. And
higher-end products like those at Blue Buf-
falo – typically $60 and up for a 30-lb. bag
-- are enjoying even higher growth rates.
Speaking of Blue Buffalo, it was the last
independent of the five top-selling pet food
companies … until now. At the end of Feb-
ruary, General Mills announced a deal to
acquire the premium pet food company for
$8 billion.
There are numerous parallels between the
pet food market and the rest of the food
industry. Millennials and ecommerce are
changing the business. Premium and niche
products are growing faster. Gluten-free
products and clean labels are of growing
importance. Food safety is paramount. And
the leading suppliers are Mars, Nestle and
J.M. Smucker, although you won’t find their
names on bags of Iams, Purina or Gravy
Train, respectively. The U.S. has 517 pet
food manufacturing facilities.
“It’s an exciting time to be in the business,”
says Cathleen Enright, outgoing CEO of the
Pet Food Institute (www.petfoodinstitute.
org). “Just as with human food shoppers,
today’s pet food shoppers live in the era of
instant information. There is a growing inter-
est in understanding issues related to the
Feed Them Like FamilyThe pet food market follows many of the trends of the human food market, but with tail-wagging sales increases.
By Food Processing Staff
eHANDBOOK: 4
www.FoodProcessing.com
manufacturing of food and the ingredients
used. This overarching theme plays a role in
shaping the various trends within pet food.”
Much of the growth in pet food has to do
with the rapid acceleration of online sales,
particularly with behemoths Amazon.com
and Chewy.com, notes David Sprinkle,
research director for Packaged Facts (www.
packagedfacts.com). “Internet sales of pet
products are outpacing and even steal-
ing sales from other channels, notably pet
super stores,” he says. PetSmart found a
way to fight back: It bought Chewy.com in
mid-2017 and closed down PetSmart’s own
efforts at ecommerce. Chewy.com was only
founded in 2011 but it was reported to have
sales of $880 million in 2016 and was pro-
jecting $1.5 billion for 2017.
More pet parents looking for foods with
preventative health benefits. So pet nutri-
tion research is focusing a great deal on
protein, vegetables, pet aging and obesity.
Clean-label ingredients play as great a role
in pet nutrition these days as it does in
human nutrition.
In fact, retail intelligence from Spins (www.
spins.com) points to a spike in availabil-
ity of clean-label and better-for-you pet
treats, and expects to see more functional
ingredients in pet products this year. Spins
pegs pet treats with probiotics at $1.4 mil-
lion and growing at a rate of 31.6 percent
a year. One dog treat featuring probiotics
is functional frozen yogurt from the Bear
& The Rat, which offers bacon & peanut
butter, banana & peanut butter and pump-
kin flavors.
Formulators are developing more prod-
ucts to help animals cope with the physical
changes, such as joint problems, arthri-
tis and other signs of growing older by
incorporating functional ingredients and
adjusting nutrient levels. Hill’s Science
Diet Adult Healthy Mobility uses glucos-
amine and chondroitin and omega-3 fatty
acids “to improve mobility in 30 days.”
Purina One SmartBlend Vibrant Maturity
7+ Senior Formula uses medium chain
triglycerides (MCTs) as a “brain-friendly
fuel that feeds the neurons and keeps the
brain cells active.” Nestle’s Purina Petcare
is said to have more than 500 scientists on
staff, including food scientists, nutritionists
and veterinarians.
Research from Mars Petcare’s Waltham
Centre for Pet Nutrition (www.waltham.
com) shows similarities between dogs and
humans as they both age: graying hair,
wrinkled skin and more aches and pains
and a rise in inflammation and immune
system changes. The researchers tracked
the biochemical health of dogs over a
10-year period. As the dogs aged, protec-
tive proteins within their bodies diminished.
“Combined with regular veterinary check-
ups, improved diets for seniors could
potentially deliver more healthy active years
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eHANDBOOK: 5
for older dogs. However, more long-term
research will be needed before optimum
nutrition for every life stage [of pets] can
be fully understood,” the study mentions.
PERSONALIZED FORMULATIONSTrends in human food such as transparency,
health and wellness and personalization
are already crossing into pet food, Mintel
says. Pet owners want food formulas that
uniquely suit their companion animals
and ensure health and wellness. Both
Eukanuba and Royal Canin have portfolios
of breed-specific formulas, from Yorkshire
terriers to rottweilers.
Instinct Petfood-The Raw Brand (www.
instinctpetfood.com) for cats and dogs,
a part of Nature’s Variety, produces raw
frozen foods incorporating animal protein
(meat, for essential amino acids) whole fruit
and vegetables, coconut oil, apple cider vin-
egar and turmeric to maintain pets’ overall
wellness, immune and digestive health and
lean muscles. The recipes exclude grain,
corn, wheat, soy and potato and other
ingredients the company says can cause
food sensitivities. “We set out to really
change the way people think about pet
food and create a movement toward better
pet health,” explains CEO Reed Howlett.
Twin-screw extrusion enables pet food manufacturers to produce shelf-stable kibble with up to 40 percent fresh meat. Photo: Clextral
www.FoodProcessing.com
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“If we could get the nutrition of raw into
more bowls, we’d transform the lives of
more pets.”
Ancient grains like quinoa are even going
to the dogs. The Honest Kitchen (www.the-
honestkitchen.com) developed a Chicken
& Quinoa food as well as Beef & Chickpea,
Duck & Sweet Potato, and Fish & Coconut
blends. Blue Buffalo Co. Ltd. (bluebuf-
falo.com), created a Chicken & Quinoa
Ancient Grains recipe, while a grain-free
line from Nestle Purina Petcare’s Beneful
is now “accented with blueberries, pump-
kin and spinach.”
Pet obesity concerns pet owners, and cal-
orie intake can vary greatly depending on
the size of the pet. Blue Dog Bakery (www.
bluedogbakery.com) has been making bet-
ter-for-them, low-fat dog treats since 1998,
using “human-grade” ingredients with no
animal by-products, artificial flavors, colors
or preservatives. From grain-free biscuits
and pea-protein paw-shaped bites to soft,
chewy trainers and meat snacks, each treat
has only 3 calories.
Brand manager Lara Gusa says one of the
top trends this year is using plant-based
ingredients. “Pea and chickpea flour can
substitute for wheat or other grains,” she
says. “These simple ingredient swaps can
help with pets’ dietary sensitivities, while
maintaining high-quality nutritional con-
tent. Trends this year align closely with
trends in human foods. That means a push
for cleaner-label treats free from artificial
flavors, colors and preservatives, as well as
label transparency, so pet parents can easily
understand ingredients inside products. As
we eat more natural and wholesome ingre-
dients ourselves, so do our pets.”
Often pickier than dogs, cats are true
carnivores that require high protein and
certain amino acids found only in meat,
says Cornell University College of Veter-
inary Medicine. For cats favoring gravies,
Fruitables Chicken Broth Bowls cat food
toppers (www.fruitablespetfood.com) from
Vetscience LLC are broths in handy pour-
able paperboard cartons. Low in calories
and sodium, they add flavor and hydration
and accommodate cats of all ages.
MANUFACTURING IS ADVANCEDTo cater to pet owners’ desire to provide
top-quality nutrition, pet food processors
employ some of the most advanced tech-
nologies in food processing.
Consider high-pressure processing (HPP).
Many of the hottest new refrigerated prod-
ucts in recent years take advantage of this
nonthermal process to pasteurize meat,
juice and other products without destroying
nutrients. For Stella & Chewy’s Pet Food
Co., HPP is old hat.
The Oak Creek, Wis., company launched in
2007 with raw, frozen beef patties. Prior to
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packaging, bulk ingredients were trucked
to American Pasteurization Co. in nearby
Milwaukee for HPP treatment, making Stella
& Chewy’s one of the earliest clients of
North America’s first HPP tolling service. A
few years later, Nature’s Variety in Lincoln,
Neb., began applying in-container HPP to its
minimally processed pet products after suf-
fering a Salmonella recall.
Driven by refrigerated and raw products,
HPP of pet food is a growing application,
according to Erroll Raghubeer, senior vice
president-R&D of Avure Technologies
(www.avure-hpp-foods.com), an Erlanger,
Ky., maker of HPP machines. Most treat-
ment is done at tolling facilities, although
“we expect more manufacturers to bring it
in house very soon,” he says.
Pet food manufacturers usually apply the
pasteurization step to raw materials and
either sell it refrigerated or frozen or form it
in a clean room and then freeze dry or heat
dry the final product.
Freeze drying is used at Stella & Chewy’s.
Raw coated kibble and raw meal mixers are
freeze dried. Other pet food manufactur-
ers have followed suit, including Champion
Pet Foods, a Canadian firm that opened a
371,000-sq.-ft. plant in Auburn, Ky., in 2016.
High energy costs have relegated freeze
drying to niche status in human foods, but
premium dog food commands the kinds of
margins that make freeze drying feasible.
Nonetheless, lower processing costs are
desirable in any market segment, and that
makes pet food manufacturers receptive
to alternatives.
An example is the dehydration technology
from EnWave Corp. (www.enwave.net), a
Vancouver, British Columbia, firm. EnWave’s
dryers use microwave heating under vacuum
1. Mars Petcare (the private parent company does not supply figures, but industry
experts estimate sales well above $12 billion)
2. Nestle Purina PetCare ($12.1 billion worldwide)
3. Hill’s Pet Nutrition (contributed $2.3 billion in 2016 to Colgate-Palmolive Co.)
4. Big Heart Pet Brands (a division that contributed $2.1 billion in fiscal 2017 to J.M.
Smucker Co.)
5. Blue Buffalo (an independent company with $1.1 billion in 2016 sales)
Top Pet Food Companies
www.FoodProcessing.com
eHANDBOOK: 8
to lower the boiling point of water to about
50°C from 100°. Product tumbles inside a
chamber during the semi-continuous pro-
cess to ensure all surface areas are exposed
to the microwaves. The process shortens
drying time and avoids the multiple phase
changes that occur with freeze drying and
contribute to its high energy costs.
As water within the product evaporates,
air fills the void, causing material to puff.
The result is a product that is crunchy
rather than spongy. Dubbed radiant
energy vacuum by the manufacturer, the
technology has been licensed to produce
shelf-stable cheese snacks and yogurt.
Perdue Farms became the exclusive
licensee for pet food in 2016. It is used by
Perdue’s Full Moon Pet Treats division.
Twin-screw extrusion is another technol-
ogy finding fertile ground in the pet food
segment. It also has enabled vegetable-pro-
tein foods that emulate the texture and
mouthfeel of real meat, in a process that
extruder manufacturers refer to as “fiber-
ized vegetables.”
In pet food processing, twin-screw extrud-
ers mix up to 40 percent fresh meat with
cereal or other ingredients to produce
shelf-stable dry kibble. By controlling water
activity and pH, processors are able to
create a finished product that does not sup-
port microbial growth or go rancid.
Feed manufacture sometimes serves as a
proving ground for systems that migrate to
mainstream food production. “Some of the
most in-depth work we’ve done for in-house
engineering (at a major food corporation)
has been on the pet food side,” says Tim
Albers, director-product management at
Nidec Motor Corp. (www.nidec.com), a
St. Louis supplier that devised a motor-
drive solution for pet food extrusion. “Now
they’re applying it to the human side.”
FDA always has had jurisdiction over pet
food manufacturers, though the Food
Safety Modernization Act raised the bar.
They must now comply with current Good
Manufacturing Practices, conduct hazard
analyses that support preventive actions
and otherwise comply with the same stan-
dards as mainstream food processors. A
cultural change is underway in pet food
plants, but if history is any guide, those pro-
cessors will take advantage of some of the
most effective tools available.
www.FoodProcessing.com
eHANDBOOK: 9
For almost a decade, 3DLevelScan-
ners have been providing highly
accurate level and volume measure-
ment in challenging materials contained in
bins, tanks, and silos. The only sensor to
measure and map the material surface, it
sends pulses in a 70° beam angle, taking
multiple level measurements and account-
ing for uneven surface topography when
calculating volume. Each sensor comes with
3DVision software that reports the lowest
and highest points detected and the aver-
age level based upon a weighted average of
all measurements in the bin. For the MV and
the MVL models, a colorful graphical rep-
resentation indicates where high and low
spots exist in the silo.
3D scanners keep pushing the boundaries –
and addressing the concerns of increasingly
complex food operations. This article shares
a few of the newest innovations.
VIEW MULTIPLE SILOS ON A SINGLE SCREEN MultiVision software for inventory
visibility across an organization
Inventory management affects multiple
departments across a food processing orga-
nization. Plant personnel need adequate
inventory for production, purchasing needs
to know what to order and when, and finance
needs accurate valuation for financial state-
ments. To provide corporate-wide visibility,
the optional 3D MultiVision software enables
users to view data for multiple bins in a single
window. And since it is Windows-based, it
can be configured for 24/7 access via an
organization’s Local Area Network (LAN).
Using 3D Level Sensors to Solve the Toughest Food Storage ChallengesBy BinMaster
eHANDBOOK: 11
www.FoodProcessing.com
MultiVision software can be used with all
versions of the non-contact, dust pene-
trating 3DLevelScanner including the RL,
S, M, MV and MVL models. By clicking on
a single bin, users can zoom in on detailed
information for the bin including minimum,
maximum, and average levels. For the MV
and MVL models, they can also see the 3D
visualization of bin contents. The software
allows multiple users at multiple locations
to view bin level and volume data on a per-
missions basis.
3D MultiVision software makes it easy to
share real-time bin data across the entire
organization (or with vendors using VMI) to
improve purchasing, logistics, operational
decisions, and financial management. With
user-friendly setup and intuitive operation,
each user can customize their screen to view
all bins or a group of bins and color-code
bins by material type. Users can set high
and low-level alerts to be notified when bins
reach critical levels. Because the software is
installed on the LAN, there are no third-party
applications or data access fees.
TEFLON-COATED SENSOR FOR CLINGY MATERIALSReduces maintenance in powders and
sticky granules
For materials that want to cling to the
sensor, a Teflon-coated transducer can be
a great option. The Teflon coating resists
buildup of dust, ensuring the scanner
performs optimally in challenging materials
such as powders or solids that generate
excessive dust when the bin is filling or
active. This special finish also extends the
maintenance cycle by significantly reducing
the need to clean the device after pro-
longed periods of use.
Some common applications for the Tef-
lon-coated transducer include meals, sugar,
starches, brans, and other similar materials
that are prone to cling to surfaces. It is espe-
cially appropriate for food processors in
industries such as baking, pasta, and candy
where non-contact technology is a require-
ment for food safety. Grain millers will also
find measuring ground soybeans, wheat, rice,
or corn less troublesome when using the Tef-
lon-coated model of the 3DLevelScanner.
DETECT AND ALERT TO CENTER OF GRAVITY DANGER Prevent silo collapse or damage
using 3DLevelScanners
Many powdered and solid substances
used in food processing tend to clump,
pile unevenly, and flow unpredictably from
storage vessels. Not only does this make
monitoring the volume of material inside
the vessel challenging; uneven disburse-
ment of material can also take its toll on the
storage vessel itself.
www.FoodProcessing.com
eHANDBOOK: 12
One of our customers, a major pet
food manufacturer, uses our popu-
lar sanitary static mixers as part of
their process. It’s ideal for processing misci-
ble fluids regardless of flow rates, viscosity
or density, and perfect for the instant dilution
of flavors or colorants. The concept behind
a static mixer is simple: fluid or semi-fluid
flowing through a pipe is channeled through
a geometric arrangement of mixing elements.
The element geometry within the housing
cases the flow of ingredients to divide, mix,
divide again and mix again until complete.
Static mixers are frequently used in pet food
processing when manufacturers need to
blend fats, oils, and vitamins, acidify, or blend
to marble and striate a meat emulsion.
While the customer was happy with their
static, they were having problems in
another area. Like most food manufactur-
ers that end up implementing our in-tank
or in-line mixing equipment, their current
systems were outdated, inefficient and
costly to maintain. Sometimes the proces-
sors we work with don’t realize just how
inefficient their systems really are until they
visit our lab and see for themselves how
quickly their ingredients could be mixed
to an agglomerate-free state, or they ship
their ingredients to our lab for a mix test
on our modern equipment. In this particular
case, the pet food manufacturer was trying
to completely dissolve large amounts of
granular food colorant into 400 gallons of
water with a conventional propeller mixer.
The undissolved portions were clogging
their lines, causing significant downtime
and timely maintenance procedures to
clean the lines out. Several problems were
Pet Food Manufacturers Seek BalanceTrends and ingredients may change, but increasing efficiency is a constant in the mix room – how do you stack up?
By Admix
eHANDBOOK: 14
www.FoodProcessing.com
solved by implementing our patented Roto-
solver high shear mixer and disperser. Hours
were shaved off their process time, they
saved money through significantly reduced
product waste, and they saved time on
labor and reduced maintenance costs. The
savings opened opportunities to increase
plant capacity.
We see significant process improvements in
other plants, too, across multiple industries
including pet food, human food, beverage,
pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.
Food safety and security are important
for both human and pet food production
which is why the same level of hygienic
standards are applied to both. As an equip-
ment supplier, Admix products bear the
3-A Third Party Verification symbol and are
USDA-AMC certified for meat and poultry
processing. Safety and efficiency are key
when creating gravy bases used in many
canned, dry, semi-moist meals and treats
for pets. Trending are a variety of nutrient
rich purees and gravies sold as thick and
delicious pet food toppers. Lower calorie,
high fiber purees are often fortified and
used as a meal replacement to promote
weight loss in pets.
Manufacturers need to balance texture and
mouthfeel requirements with maintaining
the nutrient and ingredient functionality.
Commercial production of proprietary
recipes for both gravy bases and purees
are efficiently mixed with advanced mixing
technology from Admix, and with less
air entrainment that aid a manufacturer’s
longer shelf-life objectives. The Rotosolver
high shear in-tank mixer can do in minutes
what takes hours with a conventional
mixer, and with less power consumption
– depending on the equipment, we have
seen power reliance reduced by over 50%.
According to the American Pet Products Association, the overall industry-wide spending figure for 2017 topped out at $69.51 billion with the food portion of that being $29.07 billion. It is clear that one of the high growth sectors is premium dry pet food and treats made with protein and nutrient rich ingredients. While trends change, a constant that we see in plants is the need for high efficiency equipment that works well with current formulations and that is a core strength where we can help.
www.FoodProcessing.com
eHANDBOOK: 15
Did you know that every time your
metal detector rejects a contami-
nant, good product is eliminated as
well? How much product goes into the trash
depends on your equipment. Certainly,
some rejected product is an essential cost
of protecting your brand and customers.
But the right equipment can significantly
minimize the amount of rejected product
and thereby reduce the daily costs of keep-
ing your food supply safe.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW AS YOU CONSIDER METAL DETECTION EQUIPMENT?
THE MISCONCEPTIONSA magnet will catch all types of metal.
True or false?
With pet food quality becoming a higher
priority among consumers and government
regulators, the presence of food contami-
nants can destroy trust in a brand. News of
contamination spreads faster today than
ever before. You may think you are pro-
tecting your food by using a magnet, but
magnets have limitations. A magnet can
catch ferrous steel, but it will not find stain-
less steel or other metal items commonly
detected in food, such as a piece of alu-
minum can, foil from a bottle wrapper, or
brass or gold wedding rings. A metal detec-
tor can catch all metal. (The correct answer
above is false.)
Let’s consider the example of a dry pet food
process that uses a magnet, but not a metal
detector. The magnet can catch a piece
of metal that falls into the product. What
Discover Hidden Profit In Your Rejected ProductBy Rod Henricks, Bunting Magnetics
eHANDBOOK: 17
www.FoodProcessing.com
the magnet won’t catch is a stainless-steel
sliver that falls into the product from a con-
veyor chain.
ALL METAL DETECTORS HAVE THE SAME CAPABILITIES. TRUE OR FALSE?
The concept of how metal detectors
work has not changed significantly in the
past 25 years. But that is not the whole
story. Significant changes with periphery
electronics and technology now allow
metal detection equipment to function
more efficiently. The electronics improve
deciphering of information and the analytics
improve the equipment’s decision-making
capability. Therefore, some brands and
models of metal detectors run more
efficiently than others, reducing your daily
costs of keeping your brand and customers
safe. (The correct answer above is false.)
One area where metal detection technology
has advanced is “gate open time.” When
metal is detected, a gate opens and the
piece of metal is expelled — along with a
certain amount of perfectly good product.
The gate remains open for a defined period
of time, normally seconds, but this is where
the new technology can help. Reducing the
gate open time will minimize the amount of
rejected product.
WHAT IF YOU COULD REDUCE THE GATE OPEN TIME FROM SECONDS TO MILLISECONDS?
CONTROLLING THE OPEN GATE TIMEA powerful pneumatic drive is a new tech-
nology being used to control the open
time of the reject gate. In addition, positive
speed control assures the gate activates at
a precise time and only stays open for milli-
seconds instead of seconds.
In the chart below, you can see how having
the shorter open time minimizes the
amount of product lost. As an example,
the highlighted boxes show the amount of
product rejected (pounds) when the prod-
uct flow rate is 50,000 pounds per hour. If
the reject gate opens for 1 second, you lose
over 19 pounds of product every time metal
is detected. If the reject gate opens for 3
seconds, you lose over 57 pounds of good
product. At a flow rate of 50,000 pounds
per hour, you can save 38 pounds of good
product from being rejected by reducing
the gate open time from 3 seconds to 1
second. As the gate opens many times over
the course of a day, you can imagine how
the amount of saved product adds up.
www.FoodProcessing.com
eHANDBOOK: 18
While pneumatic conveying
is by far the most hygienic
conveying method for dry
bulk powders, there are instances where
mechanical conveying may be a better
choice: processing facilities with nomi-
nal head room above equipment; a need
for high speed transfer with minimal
energy consumption; and transferring fria-
ble materials.
The main differentiator between mechan-
ical and pneumatic is that mechanical
conveying--including conveyor belts, slip
stick, aero-mechanical, flexible screw, and
bucket elevators--use a mechanical device
that is in direct contact with transferred
material. Pneumatic conveying uses gas
(usually air) to transfer suspended material
through tubes.
Because every material transfer system
has unique characteristics and each orga-
nization aims to accomplish distinctive
objectives, no standard equipment is suit-
able for all applications. Expert conveyor
manufacturers typically combine off the
shelf components to design custom or
semi-custom systems that integrate seam-
lessly into a customer’s process.
The advantage of mechanical conveying
over pneumatic conveying is the ability to
move large amounts of material with min-
imal energy consumption. In mechanical
systems, there is only a motor driving the
system. Opposingly, a pneumatic system
requires a motor and air to move the
material. Due to the additional power com-
ponents needed in a pneumatic conveying
system, and the lack of a dust filtration
Conveying Mechanically vs. Conveying PneumaticallyHow mechanical conveying compares & contrasts with pneumatic conveying when transferring dry bulk materials to processing & packaging lines
By Vac-U-Max
eHANDBOOK: 20
www.FoodProcessing.com
system, the dollar-to-dollar comparison
makes the mechanical system less expen-
sive to operate.
Additionally, control panels on a mechani-
cal conveyor are about as simple as it gets,
requiring minimal integration. Unless a com-
pany is working with a level controller or
load cell, most of the time the control panel
is just a fancy motor starter, reducing ini-
tial cost.
In a pneumatic conveyor system, the con-
trol panel includes a programmable logic
controller (PLC) or programmable relay,
which dictates the sequence of events that
are to occur, can handle complex informa-
tion, and provides customers the ability to
download data for evaluation.
Aero-mechanical conveyors are regularly
used as an alternative to pneumatic convey-
ing using two parallel tubes with a sprocket
on each end, and a drive motor on one end.
Inside the tube is a cable with discs on it,
often called a cable assembly. As the cable
assembly moves, it displaces air and mate-
rial, thus fluidizing the material, and carries
it in suspension along the conveyer.
Aero-mechanical conveyors move mate-
rial at approximately 20 ft3 (0.6 m3) per
minute with a 3HP (2.25kW) motor, contin-
gent on material bulk density. Depending
on the design of the conveyor, the cost
of a mechanical conveyor vs. a pneumatic
conveyor for the same output can be one
third the cost.
Flexible screws, also known as shaftless
augers, helixes, or spiral conveyors are used
similarly to aero-mechanical conveyors.
Flexible screw conveyors, however, utilize
only one tube and instead of a cable assem-
bly, they contain a metal spiral that rotates.
The spirals look like a stretched slinky or
spring, having the same diameter from end
to end.
Flexible screw conveyors move less
material than aero-mechanical convey-
ors, but they operate continuously, unlike
the aero-mechanical. A common use for
aero-mechanical systems is batch pro-
cessing; and, a flexible screw is ideal for
continuous, batch, or intermittent process-
ing. Both can convey 2000lbs of material
into a mixer in 10 minutes, however, the
flexible screw conveyor can operate contin-
uously. Aero-mechanical conveyors require
a metered infeed and they must start-up
and finish without material in the tubes.
Flexible screws can be started and stopped
with a headload of material at the feed end.
Conveying with flexible screws is common
in industry leading some to look at the
equipment as a commodity item; but that is
far from true.
www.FoodProcessing.com
eHANDBOOK: 21
C&D Foods, Driffield, East Yorkshire,
UK, produces standard and spe-
cialty dry foods for cats and dogs
as well as other animals. At the beginning
of 2010, the company designed a new
processing line to increase the dog and
cat food production. However, since the
company wanted to keep operating and
maintenance costs low, it didn’t want to
install screw conveyors or bucket elevators
like those being used in its other processing
lines to transfer products between process
steps. To find a cost-effective, clean, and
gentle conveying solution for the new line,
the company worked with a local manu-
facturers’ representative for a US-based
equipment supplier.
CONSIDERING DIFFERENT CONVEYOR OPTIONSThe company’s new processing line dries,
mixes, and cools the pet foods at up to
6 tonnes per hour, more than 2.5 tonnes
per hour than the other lines. When the
company was searching for equipment for
Tubular Drag Cable Conveyors are Topdog for Conveying Dry Pet FoodsA pet food manufacturer installs tubular drag cable conveyors in a new processing line to increase production and reduce operating costs.
By Cablevey
eHANDBOOK: 23
www.FoodProcessing.com
the line, it easily found a dryer, mixer, and
cooler, but had difficulty finding a way to
transfer the product between equipment at
the required rate without using screw con-
veyors or bucket elevators.
“Traditionally, we would have used screw
conveyors and bucket elevators to move
the products,” says Jim Greenley, C&D
Foods engineering and environmental man-
ager. “However, to handle the increased
production capacity, this equipment would
have been fairly large and the motors
would have consumed a lot of power and
kept operation costs high. Large bucket
elevators have a lot of moving parts and
swinging buckets that wear, which can
cause spillage that can’t be recycled back
into the system. Plus, screw conveyors
and bucket elevators have a lot of mainte-
nance requirements.”
FINDING BETTER CONVEYOR SYSTEMSDuring the project’s planning stage,Green-
ley was contacted by manufacturers’
representative Steve Lovell, a sales man-
ager for Flo-Mech Ltd., Orton Goldhay,
Cambridgeshire, UK. Lovell proposed that
the company use enclosed tubular drag
cable conveyors manufactured by Cablevey
Conveyors, Oskaloosa, IA USA, to move the
products through the new line. The supplier
manufactures custom-designed conveying
systems for the food processing, agricul-
ture, wood, and other bulk solids industries.
“At first, we said no, because we thought
that it was an aeromechanical conveyor,
which was something we didn’t want to
use,” says Greenley. “Steve told us that
it wasn’t. He said that it’s a slow-running,
dust-free conveyor that can gently convey
friable products. He showed us a video of
the conveyor operating. We liked what
we saw, so we sent the supplier some
product and arranged to meet them at
their booth at a food expo in Germany
for a demonstration.”
At the expo, the supplier put about 30
kilograms of dry dog food in a 2- inch-di-
ameter (5-centimeter-diameter) tubular
drag cable conveyor and started it up. “For
the next day and a half, I watched the con-
veyor move the dog kibble around, hour
after hour,” says Greenley. “When the trial
run concluded, I saw very little breakage
with just a little dust inside the tubes, and
the dog kibble was still a good, salable
product. This confirmed my interest in the
conveyor, and I got quotes for three of
them. For our capacity requirement, they
specified conveyors with six-inch-diam-
eter (fifteen-centimeter-diameter) tubes
because we’d get extra life out of them
since they run slower than a smaller diame-
ter conveyor.”
www.FoodProcessing.com
eHANDBOOK: 24
