You’re Ready to Upgrade Your Beverage Conveying Line...Now What?
Before you dive headfirst into expansions or upgrades to your beverage conveying and packaging line, there are factors to consider in order to optimize your overall efficiency. Chances are, you want to improve sustainability within your facility as part of the upgrade. With the right team of experts and conveying components, you can hit those sustainability goals of decreased water usage, decreased energy consumption, and improved safety while making your conveyor lines run more efficiently. At the end of the day, it all adds up to the lowest total cost of ownership for your company.
Partner with an Expert
You will want to partner with a conveying expert in order to optimize your conveying line. For example, we offer a Gap WalkSM consultation where our experts will review your key objectives and concerns and complete a plant walk through to determine pain areas. Once these pains are identified, plans of action can be put in place to allow for conveying components to function more efficiently and optimize the overall equipment efficiency of the plant. This process will help guide you through the considerations explained below.
Choose the Right Products for the Job
There are many factors that go into your goal of lowest total cost of ownership, and you want to select products that are best suited to provide these cost savings over their wear life. First, consider products that offer energy savings. This could be conveying components that can reduce lubrication, saving you money on both water and soap. It could also include other equipment such as energy-efficient motors or gearing within your line.
You will also want to choose components made from premium materials to optimize efficiency and sustainability. These premium materials will require less maintenance and provide the longest wear life, which means more uptime and more profit in your pocket.
Using washdown rated components is another key factor when dealing with beverage lines that will be subject to high pressures and cleaning requirements.
Bundle Parts for Easy Sourcing
There are added efficiencies to using a bundle of parts across the board in your line. We recently worked with a customer to provide a bundle of parts, all manufactured by Regal Rexnord family brands. These products included System Plast® NGE modular belts, Nolu®-S wear strips and other Valu Guide® conveyor components, Sealmaster® bearings, Hub City® HERA® gearboxes, and LEESON® motors. Using this selection of premium products proven to provide long wear life, we were able to make the conveyor better.
Consider Transition Issues
There are many pieces of equipment interacting with the conveying line, including fillers, cappers, inspection equipment, labeling, packaging systems, and case packing. It is important to think about how your conveying will mate up to this existing equipment involved in the line. Laying out the conveyors to properly interact with all the equipment will ensure that things get handled properly.
If you have partnered with a team of experts (like the Gap Walk mentioned above), they can provide insight and suggestions on how to improve both known and discovered pain points in your process.
On-Site Inspection and Corrective Actions
Once you do have your upgraded conveying system up and running, a conveying specialist can complete a punch list to make sure everything is functioning as it should be. An on-site inspection of each conveyor component can be completed to make sure everything was assembled and positioned so that it’s providing the proper flow of items through the system. Any corrective actions, such as downed containers or improper assembly, that are noted can be completed in order to give the optimal wear life of all components.
If you have concerns about the current state of your beverage conveying line and are considering an expansion or upgrade, reach out to an expert. With their partnership, you can build a solution that will provide real cost savings for your company.
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