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Customer Requirements An increase in demand prompted Eight O’Clock Coffee to invest in a second high-speed packaging system. Until this time, Eight O’Clock Coffee had been using mechanical and dilute-phase pneumatic conveyors to move whole bean and ground coffee from roasters to the packaging equipment. The addition of the new packaging equipment required an additional conveying system that could transfer coffee from 11 roasters to bagger hoppers above the packaging equipment while minimizing material degradation.
Products Handled: Whole Bean Coffee & Various Types of Ground Coffee
Key Requirements:• Transport 10,000 lb/hr of material from silos to high speed packing
machine• Maintain required dimensional layout to fit into existing plant• Provide a system with minimal operator interaction for optimum
productivity• Provide an enclosed system to eliminate dust in compliance with
OSHA• Improve sanitary operation by using advanced handling techniques• Short payback on capitol investment
Coffee Case Study 1023
Cableflow Tubular Drag Conveyors Help Eight O’Clock Coffee Expand Production
1609 Airport Road, Monroe NC 28110
Eight O’Clock Coffee was introduced in 1859 by American supermarket chain A&P. The company derived its name by conducting a survey asking people what time of day they drank coffee most. By 1930, it was the most popular brand of coffee in the United States. Today, Eight O’Clock Coffee is the fourth largest seller of coffee in the U.S. offering both whole bean and ground coffee in 11 flavors.
When Eight O’Clock Coffee’s Landover, Maryland manufacturing plant expanded their production, they needed a conveying system that could deliver 10,000 lbs of coffee per hour from 11 roasters to a high speed packaging system. They turned to conveying experts Spiroflow Systems who installed a Cableflow® tubular cable drag conveyor system that meets and exceeds their expectations.
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Coffee Case Study 1023
1609 Airport Road, Monroe NC 28110
Spiroflow Systems SolutionEight O’Clock Coffee considered their options and chose to work with existing supplier Spiroflow Systems who had recommend a mechanical conveying solution featuring Cableflow Tubular Cable Drag Conveyors. Spiroflow Systems supervised the installation and control programming then trained Eight O’Clock Coffee personnel to run the system.
A continuous flexible 304 stainless steel cable is installed inside the enclosed tubes, and solid, food-grade, ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) circular discs are mounted on the cable at 6 inch intervals. The discs are shaped to ease material movement and reduce degradation. Since the discs are nearly the same diameter as the tubes, their narrow clearance with the tube walls ensures that the coffee stays between them during conveying and minimizes residue on the tube walls. To minimize downtime between product runs, food-grade wiper discs mounted periodically on the cable keep the tubes clean. When a material changeover takes place, a felt-wrapped clean-out disc with alcohol applied is used to clean the conveyor thoroughly.
The conveyor can travel in multiple directions, from horizontal to vertical and at many angles. Instead of traditional sprockets and bearings at corners, the tubing is bent to form sweeps. “By doing that, you’re not taking the material around hard edges,” says Dave Hesketh, Spiroflow’s Vice President of Engineering. “The goal is to create a smooth path for the product without creating a shear point on the conveyor that would trap the product against the wall or the joints in the system, where degradation would occur.”
Spiroflow Systems supplied four 4” diameter stainless steel tubular drag conveyors. All four conveyors utilize 304 stainless steel cable and UHMW polyethylene discs and are fitted with Spiroflow’s patented Dynamic Automatic Rope Tensioning system (DART) which maximizes cable life and minimizes required operator maintenance.
One 34’ long tubular drag conveyor is operated by an individual control panel. Three additional conveyors are operated by a single master control panel and transport ground or whole bean coffee to a packaging hopper.
•(1)74’longconveyorhas3legs&2directionalchanges,2inlets&1outlet. This conveyor transports whole bean & ground coffee from their silos to the high speed packaging machine hopper.
• (1) 86’ long conveyor has 3 legs&2 directional changes, a sightglass, 1 inlet & 1 outlet. This conveyor transports whole bean coffee from new silo #6 to the high speed packaging machine hopper.
•(1)103’conveyorhas8legs&5directionalchanges,asightglass,4inlets & 1 outlet. This conveyor transports whole bean coffee from silos#,2,3&4tothenewwholebeanconveyor.
90° Conveyor tube bends (sweeps) & corner sprockets
Conveyor Outlet
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Coffee Case Study 1023
1609 Airport Road, Monroe NC 28110
The conveyors and process equipment are fully automated and integrated with a central controller, allowing remote control and monitoring of the entire process from one location. Using the controller interface, an operator enters the SKU for one of the company’s coffee products and pushes the start button. The controller then automatically opens and closes the necessary valves, and the conveying system moves the beans or ground coffee through the production process from the roaster to the packaging system.
During installation, the Spiroflow engineering & installation team upgraded the wire cable from ¼ inch to 5/16 inch cable with fully encapsulated, coupling-free one-piece discs to maximize performance. “The design was beefed up and now is wonderful,” says Plant Manager, Richard Holiday. He notes that the tubular drag conveyor outfitted with Spiroflow’s patented Dynamic Automatic Rope Tensioning system “is designed to automatically bring up the slack of the tensioning system rather than needing to correct slack manually. This is time saving and reduces breakdowns.”
Other features Holiday cites as beneficial include the tubular drag conveyor’s ability to make three types of directional changes, its slide gates that allow material to go to two different machines, its gentle conveying for whole beans, and its clean-out cylinder. This cylinder allows the coffee to be easily drained into a tote with no need to connect pipes, drains or hoses like the previous system required.
Holiday says his company hasn’t experienced any mechanical issues since the upgraded rope was installed. In fact Eight O’Clock Coffee has been so satisfied that Spiroflow Systems was recently on-site to install two additional tubular drag conveyors. “I would say that the tubular drag conveying system is running 99.8 percent,” says Holiday. “It’s a slow-moving system that allows us to convey a lot of coffee. It’s very reliable and dependable and our operators love it. We also love that Spiroflow is very service-oriented with great support and resources.”
Customer Benefits:• Gentle Conveying Maintains Integrity of Whole Bean Coffee• Very Reliable• Batch Transfer of Different Coffee Products• ‘On Call’/As Needed System• Automated Rope Tensioning Saves Time & Reduces Breakdowns• Fast & Easy Clean-out Cylinder• Feeds High Speed Packaging Line at required 10,000 lb/hr.• Good Customer Service• Excellent Pre & Post Installation Support Delivering product from one conveyor to another
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Coffee Case Study 1023
1609 Airport Road, Monroe NC 28110
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