"... and they smash them all to bits!"
A famous TV ad of the 70s was brought to the mind of a major Cambridgeshire veg prep processor once seepex had solved a problem for them. The company, whose customers include several major supermarkets, wanted to improve the way handled the waste potato they produce during potatoe processing and their Engineering Department approached seepex to find a solution.
The starting situation
Their potatoes are cleaned, peeled and graded by size and weight before being packed for the supermarkets. The waste peelings, slivers and reject potatoes are collected manually and transported by conveyor to a reception area where they are stored, awaiting transport to local farms who use the waste as animal feed. Any remaining waste goes to landfill sites around the county.
The solution
The seepex solution was to install one of their BTM progressive cavity pumps, sized to match the maximum daily waste volume produced. The open hopper design of the pump allows the waste to be conveyed via the auger feed screw to the in-built cutters. Here the waste is chopped and macerated and then pumped to the final reception area for disposal.
The benefit
The benefits are many: the hopper extension allows the waste to be directly fed from a tote bin-tipper, which reduces handling and the amount of waste spillage onto the floor, so reducing the Health & Safety risks of a wet, slippery floor. Also, no extra liquid is required to be added, the waste becoming flowable after passing through the inbuilt cutters.
As the site project engineer commented. "Now we hardly have to handle the waste at all - and we’ve got a closed pipeline system instead of our open conveyors. What a truly smashing idea!“ The seepex system has also brought them less mechanical break-downs and a reduction in the bulk of the waste through the particle size being reduced, so lowering the overall cost of waste disposal.
