At Triplex, we don’t have customers. We have partners. Everyday, we work with our partners to identify different ways to optimize their high purity process and keep them flowing. In working with hundreds of partners throughout Chicagoland, we continue to come across a familiar story- our partners increasingly need to automate their processes, reducing monotonous & repetitive tasks. They want to increase efficiency and maximize product or ingredient usage. And above all, they want their processes to be safe for their end users and operators. In today’s post, we’re going to look at a product line that enables all of the above- Graco’s line of Saniforce 2.0 drum and bin evacuation systems. Let’s take a closer look.
Let’s start by taking a look at operator safety and process automation. The last couple of years have been full of heady times. Business is booming, good help is hard to come by, and the only thing we can’t buy more of is time. We need to continue to find ways to get more done in the same amount of time.
This pressure has continued to accelerate a trend we’ve seen with our partners for years- process automation and the elimination of repetitive, monotonous tasks.
When you walk through a food plant, you almost always see employees prepping for upcoming batches. This can include such activities as the manual unloading of drums or toes, lifting heavy liquid or dry solids containers, or even shoveling ground beef into an auger to make a beef sauce.
These activities are repetitive, potentially dangerous, and can lead to operator burnout.
Fortunately, Triplex & Graco have a solution for that.
Graco Saniforce Drum Unloaders can help processors automatically unload anything from a 5 gallon pail all the way up to a 330 gallon tote, greatly improving employee safety and engagement.
And with the relaunch of the Saniforce 2.0 line of unloaders, we now are able to offer a fully electronic controls package that adds a touch screen control panel for fully automated unloading. Previously, we only had a pneumatic control option for seal inflation, plate monitor, and pump speed. This required a trained operator to use.
With the fully automated electronic control package, the system will prime, ramp pump speed, inflate the wiper seal, monitor plate/fluid level, stop the pump, start seal blow-off, deflate the seal, and finally, move the ram up.
Additionally, we can also integrate the system with a central DCS or PLC and store recipes with parameters like pump pressures, seal pressures, and system settings for multiple different materials. The electronic controls package also enables batch output control and interfacing with a scale or flow meter, another common partner request.
The inflatable seal on both Graco Saniforce 2.0 drum and bin evacuation systems has also been redesigned to improve cleanliness, evacuation rates, and system operation while enabling 99% product recovery. Ram plates are required for the thick, heavy products we pump with drum unloaders. They eliminate the coring we see with other pump unloading technologies. Graco unloaders are offered with both static and more commonly used inflatable seals.
The inflatable seal literally squeegees the side walls of the container getting as much of it out as possible. The redesigned Saniforce 2.0 seal also prevents spill over onto the ram that was occasionally seen in the field.
And finally, not only are we saving operators from backbreaking work, we’re also making sure the equipment they’re using is safe. The Saniforce 2.0 series of unloaders are equipped with integral safety features including manual safety locks and self-guiding plate attachments making systems both safer and easier to use.
In closing, if like most of our partners you’re looking for ways to increase productivity, eliminate waste, and maximize employee safety, look no further than your ingredient unloading and consider a Graco Saniforce 2.0 drum unloading solution. And if you have any questions about any of the Graco Saniforce products, contact a Triplex Sales Engineer today!
