Beefing Up the Profit

In a recent study, Meat and Livestock Australia investigated the cost of rendering at several plants throughout Australia*. Their investigations revealed that the cost of producing one tonne of rendered product ranged between $130 and $253.

Meat Technology update has reported the rendering product contributes approximately three to seven percent of the revenue from cattle and sheep processing. Whilst there is some fluctuation there has been little change over the last 15 years.

“As you can see there is a massive variation between the per tonne cost and we believe that much of this can be associated with selection of the correct screening equipment,” said Mr Tony Webber, managing director, iBulk® Solutions Pty Ltd.

iBulk has been a major supplier of screening equipment to the industry and Tony was kind enough to share a little insight into the importance of selecting the correct equipment for processing Meat and Bones Meals (MBM).

“The obvious choice is Rotex. Its horizontal gyratory screening motion rapidly distributes the meat meal over the entire screen surface and conveys it without vertical vibration or hop,” explained Mr Webber. “This motion causes the hair and fluff to ball up and ride on top of the meal for easy removal by aspiration and/or discharge with other rejects.”

Tony went on to explain that the importance is retention time on the screen surface, which is increased when using the longer rectangular design of the Rotex compared to the use of circular screeners.

“Consider a round screen that has a nominal diameter of 1.8 m (72”); that means the average distance of travel from the inlet of the screen to the outlet can be as little as 915mm. In the case of a similarly sized Rotex machine, the transit distance from inlet to outlet is 3000mm and this increases the yield from the process.”

Yield is the amount of material separated out as product through screening and by increasing screening accuracy Rotex helps you maximise the recovery of on-size product and therefore increased profit results.

The Rotex screener features a unique bouncing ball system under the screen surface that helps prevent plugging and grease build-up. This freedom from screen blinding permits the use of smaller openings on the Rotex screens and thus more accurately sized meat meal product passing through the screen mesh.

“Accurate screening improves profitability and lowers processing costs,” remarked Tony. “Inefficient screening leaves excessive usable product in the rejects, so in effect it amounts to throwing money straight into the garbage,” he added.

To discover how iBulk® Solutions Pty Ltd can help you beef up your profits, call (03) 9768 3955 or visit www.ibulk.com.au.

Mooo-ving Powdered Milk

Sometimes, what would initially seem to be the simplest of requests can quickly turn into a cow of a project, once the full extent of the design requirements have been established.

This was the case recently when the innovative production team at iBulk, a leading producer of internationally renowned process equipment, discovered when they were approached to design a system to transport powered milk over a span on 4.5 metres.

“While this sounds like a pretty simple task, there were quite a number of environmental factors that would eventually steer the design of the finished item,” said Mr Tony Webber, managing director, iBulk.

The environmental factors that restricted the number of options available to the iBulk project team included low head room, a light existing support structure, not to mention the fact that powered milk itself is a food product and therefore needs to be transported under sanitary conditions.

“It’s funny, generally the product that needs to be transported steers the design process, but in this situation, it was really the other environmental factors that drove us towards the ultimate solution,” remarked Mr Webber.

“Because the existing structure itself was quite light, we had to look at alternatives to traditional feeders as they tend to use brute force to move product,” explained Mr Webber.

“Without a doubt, installing a traditional feeder in this situation would have resulted in the failure of the supporting structure due to extensive vibration transfer.

“This was a major contributing factor that led us to specify a polished stainless steel Vimec natural frequency conveyor,” said Tony.

The Vimec conveyor provided the perfect set of features for this application; it works well in a low headroom environment and due to the fact that it is a natural frequency conveyor, vibration transfer is minimal. The conveyor is fully enclosed thus reducing dust and eliminating contamination concerns and most importantly it is sanitary, perfect for a food quality environment.

The team at iBulk  pride themselves on designing innovative and practical solutions for a broad cross-section of industry segments including food processing, agriculture, minerals and pharmaceutical to name a few, and it is their commitment to ensuring that all aspects of the brief are covered that has resulted in their on-going success.

“This powdered milk project really highlights our ability to design a solution that was cost effective, designed specifically to suit a unique application and above all, met our client’s requirements to the letter of the brief,” said Mr Webber. “I’m really proud of the efforts of our engineering and research and development teams as the outcome far exceeded our client’s initial expectations,” he added.

For further information contact iBulk (03) 9706 6430 or visit www.ibulk.com.au.

iBulk’s Website sets industry benchmark

iBulk has long been considered an innovator in Australia's Fine Particle Separation and Processing Equipment industry and the recent launch of their new website really cements their position as market leader. Designed to be a resource for process plant designers, engineers and specifiers, the new website hosts a vast amount of information on a wide variety of products, but is easy to navigate and features a user friendly search function.

"At iBulk we have always prided ourselves on our ability to provide our clients with solutions that are specifically tailored to their unique requirements and right from the planning stages we brought the same mindset to the development of our new website," said Mr Tony Webber, managing director, iBulk.

Anyone who points their browser to ibulk.com.au will discover that Tony and his team have put a lot of thought into how visitors will use the site in order to find the information they are seeking. The website has been split into two different, yet related areas, Products and Applications.

"Because we have been operating in the industry for a considerable amount of time, it was easy for us to identify the two different ways in which customers make initial contact and we designed the site to suit both.

"A lot of the time we'll get a client that pretty much knows exactly the piece of equipment they're after, but is looking for some additional information about specifications and they will head straight for the Products Tab.

"The other type of request we receive is from people who are operating in a certain industry sector, say for example agriculture, who are looking for a solution to a specific problem but don't really know where to start. Well these guys can head straight for the applications tab, which will allow them to sort solutions by industry," explained Tony.

The new iBulk website sets a new industry standard and further builds on their reputation for supplying quality service and in depth R&D. Anyone who takes the time to visit the site will quickly understand that iBulk's ability to design and build fine particle separation and processing equipment for the bulk solid processing industry is unique in this country.

To discover just how good the new iBulk® website is visit www.ibulk.com.au you won't be disappointed.