Baking & Snack - October 2006 - 69

MATERIAL HANDLING

Conveying Convenience

bi-directional sprockets suitable for a range of belt
types, making maintenance and stock keeping easier
and more cost efficient. The center drive conveyors produced by a Midwest company feature a belt tensioning
system with ACME threads for welded bearing support
for tensioning and tracking - handling loads up to
20 lb per sq ft.
MOVING AND SHAKING. While heavy product can
cause wear problems on the belt and stressing the components, the transfer of fragile products requires a different solution. An East Coast equipment supplier provides
a conveyor design made without belts, springs or rollers
for use with lighter products such as chips, cookies, cereals and breadings. "This uses a slow-advance, quickreturn motion which helps food products glide rather
than vibrate down the line," said the senior applications
engineer at the company.
Higher production rates can also cause problems
downstream, post-packaging. More product moving at
faster speeds equals an occasion for cased product to
back-up, jam or become jostled. An equipment company
based in the South offers a solution for singulation, where
product is positioned on the belt so that bar codes can be
easily read. The manufacturer's descrambling solution
aids in the sorting of products such as cookies, crackers
and cereal to simplify handling further downstream.
Side rails are a static area, and product that runs
around a corner or requires single-file line-up can benefit
from the use of guides. One West Coast-based company
produces low-friction beads and roller guides. The beads
turn on a spindle so they do not wear down.
ᮢ The cleated conveyor uses cleats attached to the
belting material to control product on a horizontal or
inclined conveyor.
DORNER MANUFACTURING CORP.

ᮡ Hot dog and hamburger bun dough runs on new conveyors at the
Kwik Trip Bakery.
DORNER

Kwik Trip Bakery, LaCrosse, WI, is a privately held,
full-service bakery for Kwik Trip convenience stores in
Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. The bakery produces
bread, buns, bagels, cinnamon rolls, muffins, cookies and yeast and cake donuts. Open since 1985, the
bakery includes a commissary where verticallyintegrated bakery, dairy, sandwich and salad products
are produced internally for daily shipment to 325 Kwik
Trip convenience stores in the 3-state area.
Conveyor Problem. In the past, the Kwik Trip plant
operated with a portable conveying system for the
bakery's three lines. Before beginning production on a
new line such as bread and buns or donuts, employees
needed to physically roll the conveyors into place. The
wheeled conveyor system complicated day-to-day
operations with issues of both sanitation and safety. Because of the precariousness of the wheels, there was a
possibility that the conveyors could tip over during the
transfer from one area to another, and employees could
trip on the wheeled conveyors while working within a
small area. The issue was a priority on the company's
safety committee list of action items.
Sanitation was also an issue. The conveyor line was
bolted in place and fabricated using difficult-to-clean
galvanized steel. The bakery was unable to clean the
belt or pop up the end rollers.
Rising Above. In July, Kwik Trip replaced its existing rolling conveyor system with three 7600 series
conveyors developed by Dorner Manufacturing
Corp., Hartland, WI. According to Kevin Kastenschmidt, project manager, Kwik Trip, the motivation
for the installation was ergonomics, food safety and
employee safety. The bakery chose Dorner based on
the company's timely delivery, job turnaround and
Continued to page 76

74 / BAKING & SNACK / October 2006

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