Turnkey Solutions
Air knife solutions with integrated conveyors are both compact and robust products which are reliable, easy to install, operate and maintain.
Overview
ACI’s range of conveyors offered are predominantly straight, incorporating a box section baseframe and are suitable for use in most industrial and hygiene sensitive environments common to the food and pharmaceutical industries. They are designed to ensure efficient operation and can be readily fitted with a range of different belt designs to suit exact customer needs.
ACI has supplied numerous turnkey conveyor and air delivery solutions to companies as they are suitable for use in most industrial and hygiene sensitive environments common to the food and pharmaceutical industries.
Designed to ensure efficient operation, they can be readily fitted with a range of different belt designs to suit exact customer needs.
Integrated Conveyor / Air Knife Systems Options:
Air Knives: – A range of lengths, configurations and materials including anodised aluminium or stainless steel 304.
Belts: – A range of open belts available, including stainless steel wire and plastic mesh designs.
Drives: – Geared motor drives linked to inverters for speed control.
Framework: – Conveyors can be manufactured in stainless steel or painted mild steel.
Controls: – Inverter motor speed controllers
– Adjustable ramped acceleration & deceleration
– Simple fault-finding codes.
Further options: – Blowers can be sited remotely or housed within the conveyor base frame where overall dimensions allow
– Conveyors can be mounted on adjustable height mounting feet or robust castors.
Air Knife Technology
ACI Air Knife Systems are blower-driven solutions that increase production efficiencies and save you significant running costs. Our air knife systems have a uniform slot design that projects an uninterrupted sheet of precisely controlled, high velocity air – thereby supplying a powerful flow across the entire surface of the product being processed.
Example Case Study
Application: Jelly Sweet Manufacturer
ACI was approached by a jelly sweet manufacturer who was using a particular type of Candy Cleaner unit to remove excess starch from sweets. These systems worked by using compressed air to rotate two ‘spinners’ which then created air turbulence to remove any starch present. The amount of starch being left on the sweets was unacceptable as it was resulting in products having a milky coating following the next stage of ‘oiling’. It was important that this problem was solved so they approached ACI for an alternative solution.
The customer originally looked to use the Spiral Dryer product. However, due to the high product throughput and based on testing conducted at ACI’s premises in Axminster, it was quickly decided that Air Knives offered a better solution.
The jelly sweet manufacturer had three factories, and a separate customised solution was required for each location. We designed a system consisting of Air Knives over a straight length of conveyor with an extraction hood – customised to each site based on the lengths and heights required. The initial customer results have clearly demonstrated that ACI’s Air Knife Systems easily outperform the original candy cleaner units installed and result in almost 100% starch removal.
The additional benefit is that there is also an energy saving involved as no compressed air is used and the blowers are also supplied with inverters so can be slowed down for different products / line speeds.
