A few scoops on cereal mills and manufacturing.

The fact that Barco has been supplying Rotary Unions & Joints to mixers and mills in the Rubber industry is firmly etched within the history of our company. But did you know that similar opportunities lay waiting in the Food industry and smell nicer too?

Cereal manufacturer’s such as Kraft/Post, General Mills and Kellogg’s all have a considerable number of flake, rice and shredding mills that all utilize Rotary Unions. In addition there are several mixer types, dryers, flakers and cookers that also use water unions or steam joints.

Mills in particular present perfect opportunities for our E75RS unions on water applications where plants are looking for dependable and reliable products to ensure the optimum in performance and durability over extended periods. Pressure, speed and temperature specifics are all well within our standard range of products which allows rapid delivery in case of emergency.

With the introduction of our kids favorite sweet cereal brands and the never ending flavors and sugar coatings, new challenges in the cookers have required some interesting modifications to the rotary unions. The introduction of syrups and salts are typically done through one union and steam is introduced through another. These additives can have some major corrosive effects on metal components and as such stainless steel equipment becomes a necessity on some applications.

In the case of flake cereal, the product (usually corn) is introduced into the "nip" formed by two side by side rolls and "stretched" or "ground" prior to being placed on a conveyor belt and cooked. This process generates heat, which, if left to build up, would affect the performance of the operation. By maintaining the temperature of the rolls to the optimum level, the quality of the product is achieved at maximum output.

A lot of the machinery found in cereal plants is also utilized in numerous other food processing operations and facilities.

The rule of thumb, "if it rotates and it’s heated or cooled, there will be at least one, possibly two unions on that equipment".

P.S. Don’t forget Fido or Fluffy either, your pet’s dried food is made in much the same way as our food. Nestle Ralston-Purina, Heinz and Proctor & Gamble all manufacture dry pet foods and are guaranteed to use unions and joints in these facilities.

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