Nercon Handles New Dairy & Cheese Packaging With No Problem

June 22, 2023

Material handling challenges can occur for dairy and cheese product manufacturers at the point of a new product launch or a packaging change. The opportunity to solve those challenges is what gets our team in to work early every day.  During National Dairy Month, we’re highlighting some of our innovations for the dairy product industry.

“Our washdown spiral is one of those solutions,” says Jason Gazzana, Account Manager and engineer at Nercon. “A cheese industry customer needed an elevation change in a small space but couldn’t use our Spirex™ spiral due to higher sanitary standards. We developed the washdown spiral to meet this customer’s needs, and it’s become a key line component for other dairy product manufacturers as well. It was a ‘gouda’ idea!"

The Draper Z Incline Conveyor is another good example. One of Nercon’s ice cream manufacturers needed to convey tubs from the bundler to the freezer in-feed. Simple, except the line configuration mandated an elevation change. Nercon developed an innovative second belt that “drapes” over the product to maintain the proper orientation during the elevation change. The Draper can successfully move a variety of product shapes, sizes, and weights, and at steeper inclines than conventional incline conveyors because the second belt prevents backsliding and reduces tipping.

Smaller products like yogurt cups and sticks of butter can be a slippery challenge too, especially during transfer points. For one of our butter product manufacturers, the orientation of the packaged sticks on the conveyor caused them to roll and jam. “Our customer’s facility was several states away from our HQ, but that didn’t stop our team from going onsite to troubleshoot and test different solutions,” says Brian Hagens, Application Proposal Specialist and engineer at Nercon. “One of our team members spent about a month there, and it paid off. Our customer was so satisfied with our solution and our service that we were asked to install the same line in two additional facilities. Once we had it figured out, the line operated as smooth as, well, butter.” 

Our team has decades of expertise with dairy industry line challenges. If you’re looking for an innovative conveyor partner that stands behind its solutions, call Nercon at 844-293-2814 or contact us online. We’d be happy to talk about ways to handle product more efficiently on your lines.