In this application story, a dry powder blending company, upgrades 25+ connection points to BFM® fitting. Read on for how this standardisation improved health and safety, reduced changeover time and eliminated product leaks.
Manufacturers often use many flexible connectors in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, materials and media throughout their plant. This can make streamlining operations a challenge and limits the ability to optimise production processes.
Allicio Nutrition Ltd, a dry powder blending company in the UK, use around 35 different flexible connectors across 7 processing lines at one of their sites. The lines are split between Customer Packed Goods (CPG) and Bulk Blending, producing around 120 tonnes of diverse nutritional products each week.
Product is changed regularly on site, requiring a team of 3 to clean the line between each product blend to prevent cross-contamination. Allergens such as dairy are regularly handled too, so when switching from an allergen, a full clean is required. This takes approximately 4 hours on CPG lines and 12 on Bulk lines.
During a full clean, each flexible connector is either removed for cleaning or replaced entirely. The flexible connectors in question do vary in size, shape and material but the majority are connected with jubilee clips. Jubilee clips are time consuming to attach and remove. So, a significant portion of the clean is spent on this. For example, on Bulk lines, it takes 2 team members around 4 hours just to remove or replace the flexible connectors.
Additionally, the jubilee clips frequently caused product leakage due to the poor seal they provide, leading to increased dust levels and even longer cleaning times for the team.
The solution and improvement
The site first contacted ProSpare in 2017, looking to make their process cleaner, safer and more efficient with BFM® fitting. The system combines a unique, BLUEBAND™ flexible connector with specially formed spigots, creating a 100% dust-tight seal. There are a wide range of connectors, suitable for many applications on a plant, with consistent sizes to simplify and streamline inventory.
Over the past 8 years, ProSpare have worked closely with the team to upgrade 25+ connection points to BFM® fitting across the factory. The Safety, Health and Environment Coordinator had this to say:
“BFM® fitting has improved health and safety on site. At one point, our staff were required to wear masks due to dust levels. I’d say BFM® has directly contributed to the team no longer being required to wear masks.
“Standardising our flexible connectors has helped massively. BFM® is far quicker to changeover. It takes a quarter of the time to change BFM® connectors compared to ones with jubilee clips and only requires 1 staff member [instead of 2] – freeing the other staff to just focus on cleaning and reduce the time it takes.
“Also, because there are no leaks, we no longer add extra product into the batch.”
The Seeflex 040E connector was one of the first installed, around 6 years ago. It is still in great working condition, which shows just how durable BFM® fitting really is; this success was a catalyst for the wider rollout.
Sieve area stays cleaner with BFM® fitting – Fig 1
The previous breather and connector installed on the sieve did not seal effectively, resulting in regular product leaks and 4.5 hours cleaning each week. With BFM® breathers and connectors, there’s no product leakage and cleaning takes 1 hour each week.
Adjustable filling with BFM® flexi connectors
The hoppers under the sieve connect to filling machines that move up and down depending on the size of the packaging being filled. With 3:1 compression ratio, BFM® ‘flexi’ connectors adjust to required lengths, whilst still providing a 100% dust-tight seal.
