The Challenge
HEALTH and Safety is a serious issue for manufacturing. Meadow Foods provide dairy products such as chocolate sauce. The company had a serious issue with the cleaning of manual plug valves causing components to fall on to the shop floor risking injury to staff. In addition the density of the chocolate it produced was so intense it put too much pressure on the machine causing breakdowns.
Meadow Foods turned to HpE Process Ltd to produce a specific valve to replace the existing ones able to cope with the pressure and so prevent blockages and breakdowns.
The Solution
Meadow Foods had tried other solutions to contain the problem, but this was a massive health and safety risk. As a major provider of milk and dairy ingredients to the food industry, they realised they had to source a new and more reliable valve to deal with the issues.
HpE design team investigated the situation fully and proposed a three way Liag shutter valve as the best solution. The Liag Three-Way valve would give a much lower pressure drop and having full EHEDG approval, could be cleaned in place. This would reduce the stresses on their mixer and remove the need for manual cleaning of valves, removing the Health & Safety risks as the operators no longer needed to strip the valve for cleaning.
HpE Process Ltd responded quickly with both a solution and implementation. A valve was on site and installed for trials within 7 days.
The Outcome
The three way Liag shutter valve has solved the problems that Meadow Foods were facing:-
• Loss of productivity
• Health and Safety risk to staff.
Since the valves have been installed, there have been no further issues and the lines are back in full production. Both HpE Process Ltd and Meadow Foods were delighted with the success of the project.
Dave Hutchinson, Maintenance Manager for Meadow Foods said: “HpE was excellent in its delivery and approach to the project. From the first moment of contact, the team understood our needs and what we required. HpE Process Ltd provided the brief on time and customer service was excellent. I look forward to working with HpE Process Ltd again in the future.
Andy Allman of HpE Process Ltd said – “This was a very satisfying project to work on and demonstrates the level of expertise within the business.
“It demonstrates how a business can reap the benefits of increased productivity from identifying potential Health & Safety hazards and implementing a change. The guys at Meadow Foods were great to work with and could see the benefits of the solution immediately.”