Extending Belt Life - Saving a Lot of Money

Introduction

Customer background
A well known producer of cereals and convenience food
Application
Icing of toaster pastry.After the toaster pastries are baked, they are conveyed under a series of nozzles applying icing to the top of them.
Challenge
The problem was icing building up on the urethane cover of the competitor’s belt. The company had mixed success of scraping the belt with a neoprene scraper initially, then had to go to a metal scraper because the icing would get so hard and built up. This reduced the lifetime of the belt immensely and the company had to exchange the belt at least once a month.The manufacturer and distributor of the belt had become unresponsive to this issue, which allowed Habasit a chance to offer a solution.
Recommended product
TT12/HR Matt

Measures
After having success with the TT12/HR Matt in a similar toaster pastry application, this is the product we recommended. First, a test was performed, because we were looking for high release of the sugar in the icing and a durable cover to scrape against.Getting good release of the sugar and no build up, we have been able to use a neoprene scraper only and not have to resort to a metal scraper.

Benefits
Because the customer is not required to change the belt out every month, significant labor dollars are realized.According to numbers provided, this is the savings breakdown: we expect the TT12/HR Matt to have 4 times the life due to the success of the test as compared to the competitor’s belt type. The cost of the replaced belt is almost just half the price of TT12/HR Matt. But taking into account the extended lifetime by four, it results in an annual material savings of about 55%. As far as labor is concerned, the company saved 75% in labor cost annually just by only having to change the belt three times a year instead of monthly.