A large poultry producer and existing Arcus client contacted us to discuss possible improvements to a high capacity crate washer, which had been working for more than 10 years, and operates for around 8 hours every day.
The client was seeking a better quality wash from the machine, as often manual washing had to take place after the crate washer, as the crates were not completely clean.
Arcus Process:
Arcus Engineers visited the site and completed a study which outlined where improvements could be made – it was identified that, due to various ad-hoc repairs and maintenance through the years, the two large vertical multistage pumps on the machine were massively oversized for the application, and that the nozzles on the spray bars were not aligned with the output of the pumps, meaning the cleaning pressure was too low, and the water flow too high, resulting in a poor cleaning effect and high water consumption.
Food Production & Water Efficiency:
Arcus supplied two new vertical multistage pumps mounted on a skid frame to replace the old pumps, and replaced all the nozzles on the machine to align perfectly with the new pumps, to supply a higher pressure, and a lower flow rate, thus improving the cleaning effect.
The results were significant:
50-60% reduction in power consumption – equating to around 60kW per day, or 20,000 kW per year
Complete elimination of manual cleaning of the crates, and internal hygiene audits are reporting ‘Excellent’ results, resulting in many hours of labour savings
Reduction in chemical consumption due to elimination of manual cleaning
The client has reported being extremely happy with the results, and is now looking company-wide at other similar issues, in line with their corporate strategy to reduce their environmental impact. Not only do improvements such as this reduce a clients environmental footprint, they also reduce costs – the ROI on this install is expected to be less than 18 months.
Client Testimonial:
The Facility Engineering Manager had the following to say: