Eckert Machines Article Archive

In an effort to keep our older articles available to you, we've created this article archive. Articles here are organized by subject. If you don't find what you'r elooking for here, please feel free to contact us with any questions or application needs you may have.

Conveying the Message

Conveying. Getting product from point A to point B. Most folks don't often give a lot of thought to these links that make up the production chain. Often, they come into the line as an afterthought. Seriously, when was the last time you really thought about your conveyors? Probably not recently. All of that is about to change, as government emphasis on safer workplaces begins to focus on production lines and especially on conveyors.

• Are your conveyors operator-friendly?
• Are the drives and pulleys on your conveyors properly guarded?
• Can your conveyors be locked out when needed?
• Are you employing enough conveyors to avoid the chance of worker injury?
• In food plants, are your conveyors easily cleaned to prevent the growth of bacteria?
• Are you using conveyors effectively to ensure smooth, efficient product flow control?
• Are your conveyors sized to prevent bottlenecks?

In Ontario, these are some of the concerns that will be raised when the Ontario Ministry of Labour begins its safety blitz with inspections happening this November and December. This is probably a good time to take a look at your conveyors to see whether they meet or exceed the standards. Dorner Manufacturing provides a full line of reliable conveyors to suit your needs for sanitary and safe conveyors.

Contact us for help with your conveying needs.

Blowing Away Compressed Air

Compressed air. It's something that is used all over industrial plants. Do you know how much your compressed air costs to produce per year? Many factories use compressed air to dry products and containers. This can be an extremely inefficient use of a costly resource. Paxton Products has developed a solution for most of your drying needs. If your application consists of:

• Drying bottles or cans before labelling or date coding
• Blowing off dust particulates or residual pieces from your product
• Drying product before packaging
• Drying packages before carton packing

Paxton Products may have a solution for you. Eckert Machines is happy to offer both the self-contained PowerDry blower system and now the new PureAir system for dust and oil-free environments. These low-energy solutions will get the job done and save you money.

Contact us for help with all your drying needs.

No More Tears

Are you peeling onions as part of your process? Peeling by hand usually yields good results, but is far too slow for any real production. Peeling by machine can be wasteful, but gets product on to the next step faster. With the new Dofra Foodtec OP-120, you don’t have to choose between speed and quality. The OP-120 is designed to give you hand-peeled quality at machine-peeled throughput rates.

The new OP-120 features a totally redesigned peeling wheel using magnetic components. The previous generation, industry standard OP-100 used a series of mechanical components such as friction belts and springs. With all of these components in contact with one another, there was a significant amount of maintenance to be done. The new peeling wheel features 75% less parts than that of the last generation OP-100. The magnets permit totally frictionless movement in the peeling chamber minimizing maintenance over the life of the machine.

The OP-120 Peeling wheel is designed to handle onions with diameters of 2.5” (60 mm) to 5.5” (140 mm) with a tolerance for variance of up to 1.5” (40 mm) without changing settings. The magnetic onion holders are calibrated to minimize impact on the onions themselves. The peeling wheel on the OP-120 features six onion holders, increasing throughput over the OP-100's four. The open frame design of the peeling wheel simplifies wash down for your cleaning crews and reduces hang-up spots for debris.

Reduced maintenance cost + Reduced product waste + Increased throughput + Sanitary design + Fewer components = Onion peeling with no more tears and a better bottom line. Contact us for more details on how you can cleanly peel over 100 onions per minute.

Spotlight on Sorting

The end quality of your product requires stringent standards throughout your production line. Despite your best efforts, there are still some defects that pass by with traditional or manual sorting methods. BEST understands this. To that effect, they have dedicated the last 14 years to the field of fruit and vegetable sorting. Since the 1996 release of the LS9000, BEST has focused on technology development to improve the end quality of your products.

• Potato Products?
• Fresh Fruit or Vegetables?
• Frozen Fruit or Vegetables?
• Fresh-cut produce?
• Nuts or dried fruit?
• Non-food products such as recycled plastics, metals and minerals?
• Finished product in the package?

BEST has a solution for you. Using Laser, Camera, LED and X-Ray technologies, BEST can sort based on Colour, Shape, Structure, Biological content, and density. This gives you the opportunity to assure your quality throughout your process.

Considering today's tight budgets and the need to do more with less, BEST has developed new models to meet these demands. Updated versions of the HELIUS, GENIUS, and IXUS machines as well as the all-new OPUS and FELIX lines are now available to help you secure the best quality in your end product. Remember, all of BEST's LS9000, Argus, RX and MIRA machines are upgradeable to include most of the newest technology.

Contact us for help with your sorting applications.