Case Study: Glorybee Foods Conveys Ingredients Having Disparate Particle Sizes And Bulk Densities Without Separating Blends

GloryBee Foods, founded in 1975 as a one-man operation selling honey, is a leading manufacturer and distributor of organic food products. The family-run business still sells honey and other liquid sweeteners, but it also markets a broad assortment of spices, herbs, trail mixes, flours, grains, baking mixtures, rice, beans, pasta and other dry bulk foods. The diverse product line requires the operation to convey bulk materials having dissimilar particle sizes, bulk densities and flow characteristics to a filling machine—undamaged and with no separation of blended produSetting conveyor parameterscts.

The conveyor also handles materials that tend to pack and cake, one example being a blend of shortening, salt, sugar, yeast and several other ingredients that is kneaded with flour to make pizza dough. "Despite the non-free-flowing nature of the blend," says Turanski, "the flexible screw conveyor moves it at a consistent rate of 80 cubic feet per hour."

GloryBee sanitizes all interior surfaces of the blender, conveyor and filler between production runs with a total system rinse, a wash with cleanser, another rinse, a sanitizing step and a final rinse, after which the equipment is air dried. Turanski says the removable clean-out cap at the bearingless intake end of the conveyor allows reversing of the screw rotation for total material evacuation, and in-place cleaning of the flexible screw and crevice-free interior of the conveyor tube.