Recently during their routine visit, Guttridge revisited one of their local customers specialising in Malt, to ensure that the existing handling equipment, which was supplied by Guttridge in 2013 has been running as expected and faultlessly. In total there were several machines supplied by Guttridge: Angleveyors, Chain Conveyors, and Elevators, all of which work together to assist with the day-to-day operating of this plant.
When delivery of Malt arrives on site, the first Angleveyor is ready to receive the Malt through its short trench-intake section, sized to accept a sock-tip from a truck. This machine has a Galvanised finish and is fitted with a hinged lid to keep it weathertight, and a safety grid to stop any foreign objects from getting into the machine. The Angleveyor feeds one of Guttridge’s Elevators, then the Malt feeds into a Flow and Return Chain Conveyor to fill one of four Silos. The Flow and Return section allows the machine to be fed in the middle and still convey Malt into the Silos toward the Tension End.
Underneath the Silos, Guttridge’s Chain Conveyors are fitted with Metering Inlets. These ensure that the Malt does not overfill the Conveyor and are set to allow a steady flow of Malt into the production area. Once inside, the Malt goes up in another one of Guttridge’s Elevators so it can be dropped through the two Roller Mills our customer has on their site, or straight into bags depending on what the customer needs. This is controlled by one of our Diverter Valves, installed on the Elevator outlet. From here, the rolled Malt goes up a third Elevator and into the bagging machines, ready to be supplied to Beer producers throughout the country and for export.
The Elevators in the production area are fitted with FIKE Flameless Explosion Panels, which are an option on all Elevators depending on application requirements, and all machines both inside and outside are ATEX certified. Guttridge has maintained a close relationship with the customer over the last 8 years and has been able to supply various machine extensions and other modifications as the plant has grown.
Whilst on-site, the customer remarked “What impresses us most is the durability of the kit, we run these machines up to 16 hours 5 days a week and have rarely had a mechanical breakdown. In the unlikely event of an issue, the service/engineering teams at Guttridge have been quick to rectify and the tech support has been extremely helpful”.