HYGIENE
Washed down but not out Drives that are placed on food and beverage conveyor systems must have longevity and robustness. Food & Beverage Industry News talks to SEW-Eurodrive.
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n the food-processing world there are many examples of conveyor lines brought to a halt by drive units that couldn’t handle the daily dose of high-pressure washdowns and chemical cleaners. But a Victorian meat-processing works has found a solution. More than six years after investing in purpose-built, sealed mechatronic drives, its conveyor lines are still running smoothly. In food-processing environments, cleanliness and hygiene reign supreme. It’s a given. And when meat is the product at hand, there is no margin for error. At the end of each day’s work, all the conveyor lines, and all of the drive units that keep them running, are washed and scrubbed clean with approved chemical cleaners and high-pressure hosing. The cleaning process is manual. André Vanschie, maintenance manager at Hardwick Meatworks, described it as being similar to handwashing the dishes at home, but on an industrial scale. At plants like Hardwick’s, traditionally designed drive systems are prone to damage from water
ingress and frequent exposure to the cleaning products. This often causes them to fail early in life. With a thriving beefand lamb-processing business that includes exporting to approved countries around the world, the challenge for the Kyneton-based facility was to find a drive system that could withstand the daily cleaning. It would also need to meet the stringent requirements for operation in a food-processing environment. More than six years ago, in an endeavour to overcome this challenge, Hardwick’s chose a different approach, and selected SEW-Eurodrive’s MoviGear mechatronic drive system to power the conveyor lines at their meatworks. The drive systems are still operating today, despite the harsh operating environment. In a processing plant the size of Hardwick’s, which supplies to both wholesale and retail outlets, the improved reliability and longer lifetime of the drives translates into savings.
Sealed units The longevity of the drive systems in this environment of constant washdowns and scrubbing is due to the fundamental design and fabrication of the units. A difference between MoviGear and the more traditional drive systems is that the MoviGear units have an enclosed housing with no fan design. The inner workings of the mechatronic drive are protected from water ingress and the cleaning products. Vanschie said that this has resulted in reliability of drive systems at the meatworks. Earlier designs would last around one year, whereas the MoviGear drives have been operating for six years. “It’s an amazing record. Because they’re sealed, they don’t let the water in. That means there’s no corrosion, so they don’t burn out. They last a lot longer,” Vanschie said. This assessment comes from an experienced and knowledgeable operation. Hardwick’s is a familyowned business that has been processing meat for more than 40 years. They offer restaurant-quality products to the local market in
Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, and export Australian produce to countries across the world, particularly in the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions. Product of the same quality is also available to the general public, via Hardwick’s retail store in Kyneton. Employing more than 400 people, its 800sqm plant runs two shifts per day, starting early in the morning and finishing around 10.30pm, depending on the volume of work. Over the two shifts, they process approximately 200 cattle and up to 8,000 sheep. The plant has two processing floors, one for beef and the other for lamb. The meat is bagged, ready for sale, in the deboning room, where there are 34 conveyor lines, each powered by a MoviGear mechatronic drive unit. The switchboard that controls the drives is housed upstairs, away from the meat products and wet areas. Enclosed in a stainless-steel ‘dropper’, the cables that connect the switchboard to the drive units are also well protected. The IP66 enclosure is protected against direct, high-pressure water jets.
24 Food&Beverage Industry News | June 2020 | www.foodmag.com.au
