Wrigley Poland sees reduction in energy consumption, maintenance and cleaning time

Background

Wrigley is a name well-known in the consumer goods industry for its wide variety of chewing gum and mints. Wrigley Poland recently decided to follow the company move toward process automation by simplifying its conveying process to reduce downtime.

Solution

Piab’s conveyors were installed for the transfer of flavouring powders from blenders to presses in the confectionary department, and for the handling of rolling compounds at the sheeting machines.

Result

With the Piab system in place, there is less downtime during the manufacturing of pressed mints and pellet form gum, as the vacuum conveyor and filters are very easy to clean. Since installing the conveyors, Wrigley Poland has reduced cleaning time by about 70%, while maintenance has been reduced to periodical replacement of filters only. Wrigley also reports that the previous system cost the company twice as much as the Piab solution at the same capacity, and was much less reliable. The new conveyors are also more efficient, as their design improves the vacuum-assisted flow by 25% without affecting energy consumption.