The ambient spiral cooler is used to cool the morning goods (rolls, buns or teacakes) after the oven baking process, and prior to being packaged. The challenge was to deliver a spiral solution by reconditioning and improving the functionality of the existing spiral (plastic modular belt from a competitor with steel rods), which was in a very poor and unreliable state of repair, giving downtime too often. One of the issues were sugary deposits, from the fruit, causing hygiene and consistent drive problems.
The belt was badly damaged being held together with cable ties and other such temporary fixes.
The belt plastic was evidently very brittle, which would explain the ease and frequency of belt breakages. The time needed to carry out repairs on the existing belt was excessive and weakened the overall system. The inquiry was to modify the spiral cooler, with an FDA approved plastic modular belt, to achieve efficient and reliable functionality, whilst minimizing down time for maintenance, cleaning and repair.
Due to its market leading strength and its industry proven durability, we recommended the spiral belt M5290 PP Blue radius, with PA single piece rods and the associated drive sprockets. As part of the retrofit process, Habasit also provided the new associated plastic support rail and cage drum bar Wear Strips. The take-up assembly was also modified to allow more belting to be accommodated in the take-up.
The customer's downtime is now minimal compared with their previous regular belt failures and repairs