December Newsletter
Ending a year that has been difficult for most small businesses coupled with preparing for the large Northwest Food Manufacturing and Packaging Expo in Portland, Oregon next month, makes it a good time to devote a Memo to this company’s product line. Large french fry potato fryers and blanchers are not covered in this issue. Most readers with large french fry potato process lines are already aware of this equipment. Gem Equipment designs, manufactures and installs batter application systems, blanchers, catwalks and support structure, choppers, conveyers, coolers, fryers, hydro-pump systems, loose freeze breakers, macerators, pneumatic separators, process piping systems, proportional feeders, ribbon blenders, tote and barrel dumpers, and washers. Needless to say, not every item listed above can be discussed in one Memo.
Since the beginning of 1995, this company has used Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to improve the functionality of equipment that depends on fluid flow for its operation. In mid 1996, the for-runner of the system used today was purchased. This model produced a two dimensional print-out that showed direction and velocity of fluid flow throughout the system being modeled. Over the years, Gem’s CFD has been upgraded, first to three dimensional print-outs then to the ability to display fluid flowing on the screen of the computer monitor. Coolers, Hydro-pump vortex tanks and pneumatic separators have benefited from this approach. One customer reported that he never had a plug-up in a hydro-pumping system that was fed with Vortex tanks designed utilizing CFD and manufactured by Gem Equipment.
Some of this company’s most interesting jobs are those that include working closely with a customer to develop a new machine or adapt existing equipment for new processing requirements. Sometimes these developments just require designing and manufacturing a larger unit. Gem had a customer that wanted to use one spinach chopper instead of using two as was done in their sister plant. This led to what is reportedly the highest volume spinach chopper in the world. Using blades that would ultimately become part of the production chopper, a pilot size chopper was manufactured to test the concept and make sure the finished chopped spinach met the customer’s requirements. After the pilot model met the customer’s requirements, the production model was manufactured and installed. After start-up, one final operating condition was brought to Gem Equipment’s attention. Rocks up to 6 inches in diameter came into the plant with the spinach. The chopper threw the rocks back and chopped the spinach. The plant put a cage over the top of the chopper to catch the rocks, thus avoiding injury to employees.
The December Gem Equipment Memo always has an additional duty, to function as a Christmas card. Note that except for the previous sentence, the word December does not appear anywhere else in this Memo. The date was purposely left off the original Memo, to avoid the tyranny of meeting a monthly deadline. TO ALL MEMO READERS, WE WISH YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY PROSPORUS NEW YEAR!!!