Air-Evac system improves safety and sanitation

Edited by the Processingtalk editorial team Jun 11, 2007

The Friendly Ice Cream Corporation has improved safety and sanitation, and decreased its manual labour, as a result of converting from stainless steel tanks to the Air-Evac bag-in-box application

Friendly Ice Cream has been successfully using the system at its Massachusetts plant in the handling of its high-viscosity toppings for about a year.

Friendly manufactures its fudge and pineapple toppings in 600 gallon kettles at the plant.

Previously, the toppings were pumped from the large kettles into 250-gallon stainless steel tanks.

Once filled, the tanks were placed in storage and then moved out to various work centres when needed to incorporate the thick ingredients into ice cream products.

"The stainless steel tanks were very large and took up a lot of storage space," said Jim Perry, business unit supervisor at the plant.

Then, the bulky tanks had to be moved manually out to the work centres.

"Moving the totes was a real safety hazard.

Their wheels would get stuck in floor drains and they were very hard to move.

Safety is a very important issue for Friendly Ice Cream and we were not satisfied with the use of the tanks".

In addition, the rigid steel containers required considerable manual labour to scrape out and offload their high-viscosity contents into the finished product.

Cleaning the tanks was also a labour-intensive process, and there was always a risk of contamination if the tanks were not washed and sanitised properly.

Once they were emptied and cleaned, the bulky containers had to be stored until they were needed again.

Then the tanks had to be cleaned a second time before filling.

Friendly made several attempts to replace its tanks with bag-in-box solutions, but the products on the market did not produce acceptable residual levels.

In 2003, several members of the Friendly manufacturing team attended a trade show where they saw the Air-Evac System.

The patented, hands-free system is vastly different from conventional methods of emptying liquid from bag-in-box liners.

The system works by replacing the volume of liquid pumped out of the inner chamber of the bag with shop air introduced to chambers on the outside of the bag.

Friendly is currently using the BlowFish Air-Evac liner along with the Arena 330 Shipper, a collapsible IBC liquid storage and shipping container.

Today, Friendly pumps its toppings from the 600-gallon kettles into the Arena Air-Evac bags, which hold about 300 gallons each.

The Blowfish bags, which are nestled in the Arena 330 Shipper, are then stored in the anteroom.

When needed, the Arena Shippers are easily and safely delivered to the work centres using a pallet jack.

At the work centre, an operator hooks up the Blowfish bag to a pump.

A central air supply is introduced to the chambers on the outside lining of the bag through an air regulator.

The inflating air chambers push the liquid content toward the bottom outlet of the bag.

Air volume is increased as the liquid content decreases.

As product pools around the bottom drain opening, it can be easily pumped out, enabling the Air-Evac to achieve unparalleled low residual levels for bag-in-box applications.

The central air supply does not come in to direct contact with the bag contents, preventing product contamination.

The Air-Evac system alerts operators when the contents of the bag are nearly emptied, eliminating the need for constant monitoring.

When the bag is emptied, it is thrown away.

The Arena 330 Shipper can be easily collapsed and then stacked and stored until needed again.

The Shipper is cleaned and sanitised before each use.

"Safety is number one at Friendly and the Arena system has eliminated the potential safety hazards of our steel tanks.

We've also improved sanitation and decreased our manual labour.

We are very pleased with the system," summarised Perry.

Friendly is currently testing the Arena Starfish Air-Evac system using a top discharge pumping systems to further enhance safety, sanitation, and reduce residual levels.