How Matcon helped a coffee company reduce its blending time

Wetra Food Industries boosted productivity and saved money with a Matcon solution.

Matcon has optimized many processing systems with its intermediate bulk containers, or IBCs, available in Canada from Firing Industries. Matcon’s history is full of success stories. One recent example involved Wetra Food Industries, a coffee manufacturer that needed to update its processing equipment.

With Matcon’s help, Wetra increased its production capacity, response times, and product quality simply by reducing blending time.

Matching an increase in demand

Demand for Wetra products had increased significantly, which necessitated a boost in production capacity. The managing director wanted a flexible system that bought low levels of inventory/WIP and dust containment to keep the facility clean. The risk of cross-contamination also needed to be addressed.

Following an engineering study of Wetra’s current process, Matcon recommended a system of intermediate bulk containers with no fixed mixers, a flexible and easy-to-clean process that enabled high production output. The goal was to optimize the product flow from raw materials entering the plant from the east to finished goods coming out of the west. Decoupling the filling, blending, and packing processes enabled the plant to perform all operations simultaneously.

The key advantage of this system was reduced blending time, due to the absence of fixed mixers. With a system that employed a tumble blender, mixing took place within the bulk containers, so the blender did not have to be cleaned between recipe changes. IBCs have no contact parts, and each one has patented Cone Valve technology for quick, effective discharge.

Other benefits included the following: the ability to preserve blend homogeneity throughout the transfer process; repeat order-processing capabilities; elimination of ingredient segregation and particle rolling; controlled powder flow with the variable lift height mechanism in the Cone Valve; a dust-free atmosphere; and the intelligent IBC discharge. Another huge time-saving advantage was the reduced cleaning time, as cleaning was now performed offline.

With this new IBC system, Wetra began to bring in extra revenue due to the effect of the reduction in blending time on the production process. Firing Industries can provide IBC systems for similar results.

To learn more, contact Firing Industries’ application-sales engineers at ddubuc@firing.com or (877) 688-0974.

• Tweet