Two bulk bag unloaders and five flexible screw conveyors double the peanut butter production capacity of Once Again Nut Butter's new 3440 square meter dedicated peanut butter factory. The unloader/conveyor system transports up to 1590 kg/h of raw peanuts to each of the two roasters, for a total of 3175 kg/h. The new production line provides dust-free operation and improves operator safety.
Established in the United States in 1976, Once Again Nut Butter processes natural and organic products such as honey, sesame tahini and butter made from peanuts, almonds, cashews and sunflower seeds. As the new factory processes all the company's peanut products, the old factory for all nut and seed products established in 2004 will be able to produce peanut-free products.
Feeding the new production line are two Flexicon BULK-OUT bulk bag unloaders placed side by side. Both are BFC models, equipped with cantilever I-beams, cranes and trolleys, which can lift and position the bags in the unloading frame without a forklift. Five flexible screw conveyors, also from Flexicon, move the peanuts through successive steps of the process.
Side-by-side beams and crane-style bulk bag unloaders allow one frame to be unloaded while the other frame is reloaded.
In older factories, bulk bags containing peanuts were hung above the roaster and poured directly into it. Compared to direct emptying, “the bulk bag unloader in the new plant is safer, more automated, and improves operator ergonomics,” said Peter Millen, Process Engineer, Once Again. Unloaders and conveyors wrap the peanuts to protect them from contamination while preventing dust from escaping into the facility. In addition, the new roaster is too high to hang the bulk bag above its feed hopper.
Once the two bulk bag unloaders are installed side-by-side again, one frame is allowed to be unloaded while the other is reloaded, and redundancy is provided when one of the systems is offline.
The flexible screw conveyor transports the raw peanuts from the unloader to the gravity separator and stone remover, and removes foreign matter before the peanuts are discharged into the roaster, which improves the product quality compared to the direct emptying method.
Raw peanuts are shipped in 1000 kg bulk bags. The operator connects the bag strap to the lifting frame and uses the pendant to activate the electric hoist and trolley to position the bag in the unloading frame.
The outlet spout of the bag is pulled through an iris valve that closes around the spout to prevent material flow. The operator then unfastened the straps, closed the access door and slowly released the valve to prevent the peanut burst from transferring air and dust from the 156-liter capacity hopper to the factory environment. The hinged lid on the hopper also allows manual dumping from the hand bag.
The hinged lid on the hopper allows manual inspection.
The unloader is equipped with a pneumatic FLOW-FLEXER bulk bag activator. As the bag empties and becomes lighter, the relative bottom edge of the bag gradually rises and lowers into a V shape to promote complete emptying.
The 6.1 m long flexible screw conveyor conveys peanuts from the hopper of each unloader at a 45-degree inclination, and then unloads them into a gravity separator that removes any foreign matter that is lighter than peanuts and has a lower density, such as Fragments of branches or peanut shells.
From the gravity separator, the third flexible screw conveyor, this 4.6 m long and inclined at 45 degrees, will take the peanuts to the stone remover to remove any materials that are heavier and denser than peanuts, such as pebbles or metal fragments.
Then, the peanuts are loaded into the silo through a 15 m long pneumatic conveying line, and unloaded from the silo by another 15 m long pneumatic conveying line, which terminates in the roaster. The roasted peanuts then enter the blanching machine through a 21-meter-long pneumatic conveying line to remove the peanut skins. Another 21 m long pneumatic conveyor transports the scalded peanuts to the two storage silos.
From each silo, a 4.6 m long flexible screw conveyor transports the peanuts into the roasted peanut transfer bin. From each transfer bin, a flexible screw conveyor transports the peanuts to a 27 m long pneumatic conveyor line, which ends at the final grinding stage of the process.
All flexible spiral conveying pipes have an outer diameter of 114 mm and are equipped with flat wire spirals of the same pitch that have been tested to achieve the best efficiency. The drive motor of each conveyor drives the screw to rotate, which is controlled by a variable frequency drive. Peanuts are discharged from the conveyor below the screw connected to the motor drive point to prevent the material from contacting the seal or bearing.
“For cleaning, remove the flexible screw through the cleaning cap at the lower end of the delivery tube, then blow off and/or vacuum all the components, and wipe it clean with a surface disinfectant,” said Mirren.
"For many years, Flexicon's bulk bag unloaders and flexible screw conveyors have been reliably handling sesame and sunflower seeds in the original factory. Factory employees are familiar with the equipment, so it makes sense to apply this technology to peanuts."
As part of the designated unloading and conveying system, the company's peanuts run on full-scale equipment in the supplier's test laboratory. "This provides data on attributes such as density and flow characteristics to establish design parameters, including different angles and product feed rates for running the flexible screw conveyor," Mirren said.
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