Mepaco Blog

With the complex demands in food processing and production, safety, and quality, every component within food equipment is critical. Any machinery with moving parts will utilize bearings. Here are some tips to reduce wear issues and extend bearing life:

1. Mount the bearing correctly after maintenance. Make sure shims are re-installed and that the shaft is correctly positioned, and make sure that the shaft and bearing housing have the correct tolerance. A bearing sitting loose on a shaft will cause significant damage to the shaft.
2. Grease bearings according to manufacturer recommendations. A low RPM bearing on a mixer will not require grease as often than a grinder gearbox bearing. One grease schedule does not fit all bearings.
3. Use the correct food-grade lubrication in the right quantity. Over-lubrication can blow out the grease seal, under lubricating can increase friction and cause failure. Seals protect bearing lubrication by keeping moisture, dust, and dirt out of the bearing; make sure seals are inspected and maintained properly.
4. Check bearings regularly for excessive play and replace bad bearings before they cause damage to the equipment. Replacing a bearing is much less expensive than replacing a worn and grooved shaft.
5. Choose the bearing type that will uphold to the food processing application.
   
   Standard bearings are steel ball bearings, mounted in a painted cast iron housing. Mepaco’s coating on standard bearings is a sealant with anti-corrosive benefits.
   
   In aggressive applications, food processors often choose polymer bearings. The polymer bearing has a moderate up-front investment – but the total cost of ownership is lower because it requires less maintenance when used in aggressive applications.

1. Pull more out of your grinder

Ask your grinder experts about an upgrade kit to address a different plate configuration to increase throughput.  

If you do not have a level sensor, contact your controls partner to add controls to turn off the grinder before it runs dry. A continuous flow of meat product will keep the plates and blades lubricated - required for best performance.

Keep the pins, bushings, heads, and knives in well maintained condition.

2. Tune your system

Schedule an audit to tighten up your process. Look to remove 15 - 20 seconds from all inefficient processes. 

Consider VFD motors at different speeds to improve production flow.

3. Address small issues before they become a big downtime issue

With production at or near max or a lack of production staff, preventative maintenance may not be consistent. Operators need to allow time to address small maintenance issues. Rushing to close a safety grate that slams on the equipment causing welds to break, or not reporting wear of critical parts can lead to significant downtime.

If there is a repair needed on a piece of equipment, the best advice to ramp-up production is to have long-lead item parts on hand. Agitators that are custom fabricated can take up to eight weeks for delivery. Cylinders, motors, gearmotors and gearboxes are all long-lead items that can take up to 2 - 5 weeks for delivery.

Call Mepaco Parts and Field Services if you need support with these upgrades at 920-356-7334.

For graduates near and far, we express accolades for this achievement, especially in these uncertain times! Highschool, technical college and college graduates have done an incredible job navigating through all these challenges. 

We share this video about what we do here at Apache and we look forward to meeting new graduates in the community or even working at our company one day.

Good luck and congratulations to all 2020 graduates!

Visit CAREER PAGES!

Our service techs, engineers and application experts have pinpointed five most-often congested production areas and processes observed in food manufacturing plants:

1. Underperforming grinders

Grinders underperform due to dull plates and knives and other worn parts. Adjustment of the HP/RPM/Pitch can be made to increase capacity. If not properly maintained, the pin and bushing will wear on the head of the grinder and over time, will become a throughput issue.

The root cause of dull plates and blades is often because the grinder is running dry. The grinder must always be lubricated with product: If the operator looks away for only a few seconds, the blades and plates will be ruined. Some processors use level sensors that shut-off the grinder before it runs dry and is automatically controlled to turn on when the product is running.

2. Over-blending

Over-blending product is a waste of production time and efficiencies. Sometimes the blender is overfilled to increase production. The consequences are extended load/discharge and blend cycle times. A slight increase in the batch size leads to losses in the overall production rate with a sacrifice in quality and accuracy.

While the equipment may be the wrong style for the application, a different agitator may produce a quick, effective blend. It may also be a process issue where the recipes and timing require tuning to control the blender more efficiently.

3. Manual unloading

When the blender or mixer needs to be manually unloaded, several minutes of production are lost. The equipment must be shut off, the operator must manually remove product around the doors, then close the doors before taking the tote by fork truck to the dumper.

Screw conveyors, metering screws or pump feeders may be able to be planned into the system to automate the process, even as a retrofit, if the floor layout allows.

4. Overtaxed mixers

Mixers are the workhorse of the grinding and/or blending lines. It is vital to keep them feeding downstream operations. Automation of the unloading operations through metering screw conveyors and pump feeders can help to keep the mixer running continuously.

Another issue is the horsepower specifications. If CO2 is used in the process, it causes the product to harden and it can tax the agitator and motor and may even cause damage to the mixer if not specified correctly for the application.

5. Ineffective loaders

Some processors struggle with effective loading using off-the-rack equipment. Screw conveyor systems can be designed for the application to provide the best flighting and spacing with tighter tolerance for positive conveyance and the fastest feeding possible. Self-clean-out solutions can further increase loading performance.

If you have any questions or have an application to discuss to remove your production bottlenecks, call Mepaco at 920-356-9900 and we will put you in touch with a specialist.

Updated 3-26-20

There are no major disruptions in our supply chain, but here is a status update with a breakdown of lead times and also recommendations for inventory.

RECOMMENDED SPARE PARTS IN-STOCK*

Disharge Seals
Door Gaskets
Seal Housing
Air Seal Kits
Cover Gaskets
Discharge Bearings
Safety Switches

*Most common spare parts are in-stock, but uncommon parts have a lead time of 2 - 3 weeks.

LONG LEAD TIME PARTS

We are working with required distancing and sanitation to help our customers maintain their production schedule. Our parts and service specialists are on stand-by to support you.

Contact parts@apachestainless.com or call 920-356-7347.

We want to share Coronavirus information from industry resources and associations:

• CDC Mitigation Strategies for Communities, posted by FPSA (Food Processing Suppliers Assn.)
• Coronavirus Update on Meat Industry Notices, posted by NAMI (North American Meat Institute)
• Actions and Response Updates, posted by USDA (United States Dept. of Agriculture)
  
  

Mepaco is working on parts and service strategies, and communications, to help processors keep down-time to a minimum.

We appreciate the long hours and resource challenges by all in the meat and food processing industries and professionals who are dedicated to supplying the country during this time.

With sanitation and distancing policies in place, we are fully staffed and our experts are available to answer service and support questions.

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Starting 2020 , Mepaco's manuals and parts information are now on-line. Since Mepaco's equipment is highly customized by application, we are developing manuals to include standard options. 

As projects near completion, customers will be invited to sign-in to create a folder and password.  Manual access is also available at  www.mepaco.net/library or simply by clicking on MANUAL ACCESS at the top of every web page. Once signed up, customers will need to follow the email prompts to set up a password.  Manuals, parts lists, parts drawings, controls information and any other custom addendums will be available in the customer folder.

The Mepaco Manual Library:

• Password access is given by company name (on your PO) and (ship to ) city with a password reset every six months
• Maintenance and purchasing team members can also be granted password access
• All your new equipment parts lists are available at any time in your secure customer/city folder
• Access all Mepaco's product line manuals
• Access to revised manuals when technology updates are available
• Receive email notifications when new documents are added

For more information, download our flyer.

This ThermaBlend Cooker is available for customer on-site testing and we are glad to have it on display at Process Expo.

In the video, Tom Hoffmann takes you on a tour of the features of this machine in our "Ask the Expert" video series that we are posting daily at Process Expo.

Be sure to scroll through our blog for other "Ask the Expert" videos from Process Expo 2019.

It was great to be able to display this customized Pump Feeder at Process Expo - Chicago.

This video is one of several in an "Ask the Expert" series that highlights show equipment. 

 In this video, Cory Buchholz does a walk-though of the Pump Feeder which is part of a system display with the DP3000 Dumper.