The Masteroast Coffee Company is a specialist coffee roasting and packaging company supplying private label customers from its factory in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
 
With 30 years of extensive expertise, experience and a special understanding of the coffee market, Masteroast recently decided to relocate to a bigger factory. This gave the company a unique opportunity to expand and upgrade their production lines to further improve product capacity and quality.

Having benefitted from Guttridge equipment in their existing production facility for over ten years, the company had no hesitation in returning to the Spalding based company to supply the equipment for the new upgraded production lines. With all installation work carried out by Masteroast engineers, Guttridge manufactured and provided a bespoke high-specification range of machines for the coffee bean roasting and packaging lines.
 
Wake up and smell the coffee!

At the heart of the Masteroast 40,000 sq.ft facility are three different roasting systems representing the art and science of coffee roasting, offering an unrivalled selection of roast styles and batch size flexibility, all freshly prepared on a ‘roast to order’ basis. With its new facility the company is able to respond quickly and efficiently for supply of a large range of package types and sizes, from an individual 7g espresso grind sachet to a bulk 500kg sack. With nine packaging lines, Masteroast can offer the widest range of options in the UK coffee industry.
 
New Big Bag discharge system

Raw coffee beans increasingly arrive in Bulk Bags and the layout was carefully designed to include a new Guttridge Bulk Bag Discharger. The Discharger support frame was specified with an integral electrically operated hoist which picks up the bag's lifting loops using a steel cruciform. This allows the 1.25Tonne bag to be safely loaded into the discharger from an adjacent pallet.

The bulk bag outlet discharges onto a totally enclosed vibratory tray feeder which in turn feeds the roasting lines, providing:-

• A controlled, variable feedrate
• Gentle handling to minimise damage
• Quiet operation

Packaging lines benefit from new feeders

High quality ground coffee still needs careful handling, so four Guttridge Augaflo Crossfeed screw conveyors now feed the Auger Filling machines that are used to accurately meter the ground coffee into the wide range of packs, sacks and sachets that Masteroast supply. Each Augaflo was customised to suit the requirements of each line and included a number of features, all designed to improve operator convenience, accuracy and quality:-

• A level probe in each auger filling machine hopper starts and stops the Augaflo ensuring a more consistent level of material is maintained in the hopper. This usually leads to improved fill accuracy with consequential cost savings.
• The Augaflo is designed to be easy to dismantle for cleaning and maintenance - easy release tube clamps and slip fit screw sections are standard features and make the machines ideal for wet or dry cleaning regimes, especially where speed is of the essence.
• The polished stainless steel tubular design is totally enclosed for safety and cleanliness.

Existing Guttridge machines modified and extended to suit

To complete the project Guttridge made modifications to two existing Easyflo screw elevator hoppers. Each hopper was reduced in height with an additional flanged top to eliminate product leakage. The inclined screw elevator sections were also modified to optimise the feed height to the bins and other mods to the machine frame and wheels were made to allow for better alignment with the grinder outlet.
 
All completed on time and to budget

The project was completed successfully within the time frame. Colin Mole, engineering manager, commented: “It was good to have all the various equipment delivered according to my fluctuating relocation plans. The Bulk Bag Discharger was simple to install and the ease of mounting the hoppers and augers was a great benefit. This installation has successfully satisfied a growing demand and our need to be more flexible. I will now have no hesitation in asking Guttridge to look at any future new requirements.”

Guttridge is a leading UK equipment manufacturer and a provider of a wide range of services and can fulfil most bulk handling requirements. With an extensive in-house portfolio of equipment Guttridge also partners with a range of European equipment and solutions providers allowing them to potentially fulfil any requirement.