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Habasit plastic modular belts have a long history of successful implementation in many areas of the food processing industry, including meat and poultry processing, which have particularly demanding and diverse production process requirements. And interestingly, with today’s complex mechanical production processes totally dependent on reliable belting, belting can even offer innovative and more efficient solutions for some key production applications.

This was proved again at a poultry processing plant in the USA, where a complicated yet standard piece of equipment was successfully replaced by a conveyor equipped with a Habasit plastic modular belt.

Poultry offal is the name for the internal organs and entrails of birds processed in a plant. These parts, generally without muscle or bone, can be used in some edible products, or processed at rendering plants to produce valuable material for fertilizers, fuel, and even pet food. The fresh offal is usually separated and moved using water, before being sent to the rendering plant. But if the offal cannot be efficiently dewatered prior to transport, there can be costly shipping charges and delays. This was the case at a major poultry processor, which was using industry-standard equipment for dewatering. Looking for efficiencies in its dewatering efforts, the processor urgently needed a new solution and asked Habasit for help.

The M5021 Perforated Flat Top plastic modular belt for poultry processing

Investigation of the situation revealed that the processor was hauling 10 trucks of offal to the rendering plant each day. These trucks were overweight, with a meat: water ratio of 60:40, despite lengthy draining procedures before transport. The process was also using very high volumes of water. At the root of the problem was an auger screw conveyor that pushed product into a large, spinning screen tumbler for dewatering. This was slow and only partially effective.

What more efficient dewatering solution could Habasit offer? We suggested a food-approved belt delivering selective filtering, so that water and tiny debris passes through the belt while the offal is captured and conveyed forward. The perfect belt for this application is the M5021 Perforated Flat Top.

This food-approved belt has a 2-inch pitch, a 25% open area, and a closed-hinge design to protect the rods against abrasion. Once installed in place of the large twirling tumbler, the conveyor using the M5021 belt dewatered the offal far more efficiently.

This innovative solution – replacing a screen tumbler by a conveying system – was made possible by the M5021’s perforations, which proved excellent for dewatering. Once installed, the new conveying system created huge benefits:

• Improved meat: water ratio of 80% meat:20% water (instead of 60% meat: 40% water), eliminating drainage delays
• A 20% reduction in water usage
• Four fewer daily shipments, meaning daily savings on transport of USD 2,000 – and a 40% reduction in truck emissions
• Capital savings on new machinery of up to 80%, due to using the Habasit belt instead of a screen tumbler, which no longer has to be periodically replaced
• A payback period of one week with the new perforated belt

In total, annual savings at the processor surpassed USD 500,000.

Are you using costly and cumbersome cylinders to dewater your product? We suggest that you keep it simple and look for a more cost-effective and faster conveyor belt solution. For more information, contact us today for personal support.

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