Incline Screw Conveyor for Conveying Beef By-Products American Foods Group in Yankton, SD
General Description
American Foods Group (AFG), Fresh Meats Division is the fifth largest beef processing company in the United States. AFG ships over 4 million pounds of beef a day. One of the AFG beef processing plants is CIMPLS Inc. in Yankton, South Dakota. This plant has been in continuous operation since 1940.
The CIMPLS beef processing plant is focused on producing meat for human consumption. A variety of by-products including internal organs, heads and hooves must be conveyed to another area of the plant for further processing. CIMPLS was having continuous problems with an inclined shaftless screw conveyor and needed help solving the problems. The existing shaftless screw was bending and breaking while under load. When the screw would break, the maintenance team had excessive down time cleaning out the conveyor before replacing the failed screw. KWS provided a rugged, long-term solution and eliminated the down time.
Design Parameters
- Product Type – Beef By-Products
- Material Density – 55 Lbs. per Cubic Foot
- Conveyor Capacity – 2,800 Cubic Feet per Hour
- Moisture Content – Approximately 55-Percent Solids
- Duty – 24 Hours per Day, 7 Days per Week
KWS Advantages
KWS discussed the application with All Power (the local distributor) and CIMPLS. After a site visit and many discussions, KWS made numerous design changes to increase the reliability of the inclined conveyor. The drive unit was located on the inlet end causing the shaftless spiral to compress when pushing the beef by-products up the incline. KWS changed the design to a shafted screw because the shaftless screw was flexing under load and breaking. The shafted screw has a rigid center pipe that can handle much higher loading when compared to a shaftless screw.
Special Features
The inclined screw conveyor was moving beef by-products that consisted of internal organs, heads and hooves. Additionally, the conveyor was 24-feet long and pushing the by-products up a 22-degree incline to a truck loadout area. KWS redesigned the new screw conveyor using abrasion resistant materials for the screw flights and trough liners for optimal life. The abrasion resistant material chosen was AR400. AR400 is four times harder than standard carbon steel. The trough liners are removeable and can be replaced in the field without removing and replacing the entire trough.
Since the drive unit was located on the lower end, a KWS bulkhead trough end with a flanged gland seal and Nord drive unit was chosen. KWS bulkhead trough ends provide a stand-off for the flange-mounted Nord drive unit, keeping it safe from contamination. The Nord drive unit is compact and does not use v-belts, eliminating a maintenance item. The KWS bulkhead design also provides a space to mount the shaft seal. Considering the difficult environment and reliability expectations, KWS selected our premium flanged gland seal with three rings of graphite packing to keep the wet by-products from leaking out of the conveyor.
Testimonial
"American Foods Group is very happy! The maintenance team loves it! No more down time."
Shannon Willson, Outside Sales – All Power