Boortmalt’s Knapton Maltings in North Yorkshire produces roasted dark and crystal malt product for its brewing and distilling customers. The roasted product lines are sold in 25kg and 50kg bags, however with demand for the product growing continuously, the manual bagging operation required upgrading.
Over four levels, the bulk load-out and bagging plants have very limited space with the added complexity that operations could not be interrupted during the course of any engineering work to upgrade Boortmalt’s capability in this area.
To improve control of product quality, improve weight consistency and bag presentation, Boortmalt decided to install an automated bagging plant.
This required significant structural modifications to the buildings access routes, tie-ins to existing product screens, installation of chain and flight conveyors and product routing, via a destoner, into the bagging plant. Dust extraction via a new filter unit also required ductwork routes to be found in an already very congested area.
Timeframes were challenging with the programme requiring operative training and commissioning of all equipment within six weeks of the project installation phase kicking off.
Working closely with Robin Gibson from the leading engineering consultancy blyth+blyth, Edwards undertook the CDM role for Boortmalt and coordinated with operational management, including Simon Welford, Maltings Project Manager, to ensure the limited impact of the project. The short timeframes to deliver the project required careful planning of the work to accommodate issue free equipment deliveries.
An early and detailed survey of the existing plant and 3D design work were also key to ensuring the optimal layout for the new equipment.
Recognising that the tight confines of the site limited the number of engineers that could be progressing the job at any one time, Edwards mobilised a team for the six weeks of the project. Resource was managed with regular breaks to ensure safety wasn’t compromised and productivity was maintained.
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