Rulmeca in fruit peeling and cutting machines

Description

Today, freshness is called for in fruit salads, juices and smoothies. Long shelf life, if possible without any preservatives, is of vital importance. Strictest hygiene is a determining factor. In the past, fruit had to be sugared, pasteurized, sterilized or dried in order to conserve it. Fruit processing plant manufacturers did not need to pay particular attention to hygienic design aspects of their machines. Today, however, when ABL’s processing machinery processes apples, pears, peaches and melons, citrus fruits or pineapple, kiwis and mangos, in many cases afterwards no boiling or sweetening takes place.

Benefit

Due to their all-in-one design, Rulmeca drum motors avoid corners that are difficult to clean and dead spaces. In addition, they are protected against corrosive fruit juices and aggressive cleaning due to high IP protection classes. The Rulmeca drum motors which ABL deploys in its fruit peelers and cutting machines deliver excellent overall efficiency. The 113 Rulmeca drum motor with 0.37 kW has, for example, has an electrical efficiency of over 77%. This would correspond to the IE3, if this standard applied to this performance class. Eventhe mechanical efficiency of the spur gear unit at 95 – 97% (depending on gear level) is very high. By comparison, worm gear motors have significantly poorer overall efficiency.

Solution

For manufacturers of fruit processing plants, gaining a competitive edge is not only a matter of their machines carrying out efficient and reliable automated peeling and cutting. Particularly hygienic designs are a winner with their customers as they can increase the products‘ shelf life. Here the Rulmeca drive technology used for the ABL conveyor belts incorporates stainless steel drum motors. Today, these replace various other construction forms such as central drives with chains or decentralized drives with worm gears, as both variants are associated with severe disadvantages in terms of hygiene. Apart from the crucial hygienic properties, eÞciency of the drum motors is also important, as ABL equipment is often deployed in environmental temperatures of 1 to 3°C. The lower the power consumption of its machinery is, the lower the thermal losses consequently are and, with that, the cooling costs. Operators can thus reduce their secondary energy costs for air conditioning of production halls and thus optimize the company’s environmental performance with ABL equipment.