AUSTRALIA – tna solutions has upgraded its m3000 starch mogul in order to improve operational efficiency and ensure the equipment adheres to the highest hygiene and safety standards.
The investment enhances starch development process and equips NID’s starch moulding technology with a range of new features that further increase operational reliability, enhance quality control and improve overall system performance.
The mogul which portrays a simple design will offer the ultimate combination of productivity and versatility by fully integrating the Feeder, Starch section (Buck), Depositor, Stacker and pallet transport.
To enhance hygiene and consumer safety, the internal parts of the feeder and stacker in contact with the starch trays were made of stainless steel.
The mogul was incorporated with ATEX-certified electrical devices, temperature sensors and the repositioning and redesign of key mechanical components to mitigate the hazards associated with the handling of starch.
This development also purposed to meet European Union’s ATEX requirement on the use of equipment in explosive environments.
“ATEX compliancy has become increasingly important to our customers over the last few years,” said Edward Smagarinsky, group product manager at NID (from tna).
“Although starch moulding itself is not generally considered a high risk process and accidents are extremely rare, there are hazards associated with the handling of dry, uncontained starch due to its combustible nature.
For us, the health and safety of our customers, and in particular the operators, has always been a number one priority, so any changes we can make to our equipment that can help eliminate these risks take precedence.
At the same time, we’ve also made some operational improvements to ensure our starch moguls continue to deliver the highest level of performance and reliability.”
tna acquired NID in 2017 to provide starch moulding solutions for the confectionery industry.
The m3000 mogul comprises of automatic Tray Feeders, Stackers, Starch and Depositor sections offering production speeds of up to 35 trays per minute.
The mogul is also equipped with a tray turntable with a pneumatic vibration mechanism to ensure the starch is fully discharged when trays are emptied.
Other improvements include automatic starch gate and starch level sensors; automatic tray insert/eject station.
“It’s not even been a year since tna acquired NID and the number of new developments and upgrades our team has delivered are really impressive,” said Mark Lozano, sales manager – confectionery at tna.
“Our engineers have worked tirelessly over the last few months to ensure our starch moulding technology meets the strictest guidelines.
The hard work has definitely paid off and we’re about to deliver four new moguls, with more orders in the pipeline.
We’re also planning to set up an annual ‘Starch Mogul Hazard Mediation Forum’ to help start an industry dialogue about dust control and mitigation strategies and to ensure that we continue to develop solutions that meet all our customers’ requirements.”
