Belts: Connecting the Various Processes
Some foods are oily, greasy or wet. Some are carried frozen, some steaming hot. Many leave residue, or particles that can stain or contaminate. In this environment, choosing the right belt type is a crucial factor that directly influences the good functioning of the entire production line.
Conveying foods in general has the added challenge of requiring hygienic belt design to ensure the health and safety of consumers. Worldbakers gathered insight from expert manufacturers of conveying solutions in order to compare the various options available for professional bakers.
Intralox is a company that offers a full range of hygienic modular plastic belting designs that, according to their representatives, offers a maximum of durability and sanitation features. This is supported with a variety of easy to clean components like EZ clean sprockets.
“In addition to our plastic modular range we have developed a dedicated food safe product and component portfolio. Our ThermoDrive® belting solutions combine our patented tensionless belt system with the hygienic benefits of homogeneous, solid thermoplastic structure. Our hygienic Modular range and Thermodrive product range is often used for dough handling as we well as other direct food handling applications,” Intralox explains.
Spiral Applications for Proofing, Cooling and Freezing
Their DirectDrive™ System (DDS™) eliminates overdrive and makes operation of mission critical equipment reliably smooth, and performing without interruption. This spiral system simplifies operations by significantly reducing tension and operating with zero slip. Designed with open access for total belt sanitation, spiral belts can be lifted easily and cleaned in place without conveyor adjustment, dramatically improving maintenance and reducing downtime, water usage, and costs.
“Intralox’s spiral conveyor belts allow for reduced product loss by eliminating black specks and reducing product sticking. All belts are built for easy product release, with the hydrophobic plastic surface of Intralox spiral belting preventing moisture from adhering to the belt. Easier product release reduces marking and ensures product quality. In addition to various turn ratios, Intralox offers some unique materials that reduce the risk of fire hazard,” the company points out.
Product Protection
Jonathan Lasecki, director of engineering, Ashworth Bros., Inc. explained how soft products require tighter surfaces for support while baked or packaged products can be conveyed successfully on more open meshes. Their belts can be fitted with guard edges, to prevent product from falling off, or flights (to prevent product from sliding on inclines/declines), lane dividers (to keep product in separate lanes) and the PosiDrive Spiral™ system is designed to minimize product movement and maintain product registration throughout the spiral belt path.
“Ashworth supplies the belting used on conveyors and offers several solutions to keep products separate as they travel down the line. Dividers can be fitted to the belt to maintain product separation or in case a spiral conveyor is being used, our PosiDrive Spiral system can be chosen to maintain product registry,” Lasecki points out.
You can read the rest of this article in the Summer Issue of World Bakers Digital magazine, which you can access by clicking here.