Industry
Proteins
Application
Ground beef line
Product
Novitool® Amigo™ 1000 Homogeneous Splice Press
Novitool® Amigo™ 625 Homogeneous Splice Press
Objective
Reduce maintenance time
Reduce manpower
Increase safety
Conveyor Details
24” wide homogeneous belts
Problem:
The maintenance crew at a large beef plant in the Midwest was
perfectly happy with the way they handled belt splicing. About
three times a year, they would splice and completely sanitize
all 33 of their homogeneous belts in a 24-hour period. While
it was a stressful time for the maintenance team, it was the
way things always had been done. Hot wands were the tool of
choice for splicing, and while they presented a safety hazard
for operators because of the exposed heating element and
they didn’t produce consistent, quality splices, management
felt this was an acceptable way to complete the job. That was
until the day a new cleaner blade caught on one of the poor
quality splices, ripping the belt and bringing one of their most
important conveyors to a halt.
Solution:
Frustrated, the operations manager reached out to his local
distributor to find a better way to splice. Their distributor
brought a Flexco representative, a large piece of belting,
and a Novitool® Amigo™ 1000 Splice Press to help repair the
conveyor. The team took out four poor-quality splices and
replaced them with Amigo splices. The maintenance team was
impressed with the integrated belt cutter, which was safer and
produced square belt ends, as well as the ease of use of the
press. The enclosed heating element also made the job a lot
safer, and the end result was a consistent, quality splice that
was completed in less than a minute.
Result:
The plant immediately purchased two Amigo 1000s, and would
have purchased more, except that many of their belts were not
as wide, and it took two operators to transport the splice press.
So when Flexco introduced the Amigo 625, the plant was the
first in line for a demonstration and purchase. The lightweight,
compact 625 was perfect for their smaller belts, and at 54 lbs,
was portable for a single operator. This frees up a member of
the maintenance team to work on other projects, and gets the
job done quicker and easier. With all the same benefits of the
1000, the Amigo 625 now gives this operation another tool in
its arsenal of weapons to fight downtime.