Manufacturing Challenge
American Vacuum was approached by a Fortune 500 food processing company to bid on updating the vacuuming equipment and systems for a Food Production and Packaging Facility. The facility needed to upgrade certain equipment and replace obsolete and outdated equipment with the goal of increasing the efficiency of the operations, improving the cleanliness of the facility and increasing workers’ safety.
Efficient, sanitary processing for grains, such as rice requires superior dust control as the rice is transported and moved through mixing and processing. In addition, as with all grains, dust accumulates throughout the plant and needs to be cleaned for sanitation and safety. Spills occur during transfer and processing. The requirements for the project included:
- Efficient dust vacuuming and spill control at rice loading and unloading stations, including railcar unloading and transfer stations within the facility
- Durable, high volume bulk material conveying
- Fast, complete dust vacuuming at loading and unloading stations and throughout the processing plant
- Equipment must operate efficiently in a high volume, demanding 24 /7 processing environment
- All equipment must meet FDA and OSHA requirements (NFPA)
Custom-Designed Solution
American Vacuum’s solution was designed to provide the rice processing plant with high quality dust control throughout the processing facility, high volume conveyor systems, and custom vacuum systems to manage dust and spills at material transfer points.
- Powerlift bulk material vacuum systems, providing high volume movement of rice throughout the plant. Integrated storage hoppers and conveyors ensure efficient movement of the rice throughout the plant with dust suppression.
- Central vacuum systems, providing multi-operator clean-up throughout the plant.
- Stationary and portable vacuum systems for spill, overflow, and dust clean-up at loading/unloading stations and spot clean-ups
- Existing equipment was upgraded where possible to incorporate our vacuum equipment while providing improved performance
We provided turnkey installation services, from bid through equipment commissioning. Training was provided to plant staff to ensure optimal operations.
Installation of American Vacuum’s equipment met the specific equipment requirements for the project. In addition, the plant reported increased cleanliness, improvements in efficiency, and decreased maintenance man hours throughout the plant.