IWM brings home the bacon!

With the demand for its high-quality food products continuously growing, one of the largest pork producers in Europe, found that it needed to upgrade the tray and rack washing systems at its plant. After looking at washing equipment from a number of suppliers, the company decided that a custom-designed machine from IWM would offer substantial benefits, including space savings, economy, efficiency, low environmental impact and versatility. The pork producer’s requirements for its new washing equipment were far from trivial. The new installation had to be able to handle both racks and trays. In addition, since the trays are primarily used for baking pork pies and pasties, the new installation had to be able to remove tough carbonised deposits reliably. In the past, the pork producer washed the racks with an old machine that was becoming increasingly unreliable. The company dealt with the problem of cleaning hard baked food deposits from the trays by soaking them in detergent solution, and then cleaning them manually. Not only was this process slow and labour intensive, it also made inefficient use of both energy and water. With the exception of IWM, the other potential suppliers proposed the use of separate machines for washing the racks and the trays. After carefully evaluating the requirements, and visiting the site to inspect and carry out tests on samples, IWM proposed a single dual-purpose washing machine that would perform both functions. This groundbreaking approach offered important benefits. The cost of a single machine is lower than that of two separate machines. In addition, the dual-purpose machine is more economical to run, as only one tank of water needs to be heated. Finally, the machine takes up much less valuable space in the factory than two separate machines. The custom designed machine that IWM supplied has the capacity to wash 60 racks and 800 trays per hour, and provides completely independent control over the rack and tray washing processes. The performance of the machine has been optimised so that the trays contained in a full rack can be washed in about the same that it takes to wash the rack itself. “Thanks to IWM’s clear understanding of our requirements, every stage of our new washing machine project went exceptionally smoothly,” said the Hygiene Manager for the site. “The installation was carried out during a planned shutdown period, so on-time delivery was essential and the time available for work was strictly limited,” they continued. “IWM hit every target and even had time to spare!” The machine has now been in continuous use for several months, and is delivering results that meet or exceed its requirements in every respect. As expected, it is proving economical in terms of energy and water usage, and the standard of cleanliness achieved is at all times exceptional.

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