HomeSearch

agitators

Guide to Planning for Just-in-Case Parts

Even with digitized maintenance programs, taking an inventory of the food processing equipment in your plant is essential. To start, the inventory list will give you a clear understanding of the possible maintenance and parts needs throughout all processing equipment and provide scale and efficiency opportunities in your maintenance program. It is not uncommon for stainless processing...

Overcoming the 5 Most Common Processing System Bottlenecks

  Our service techs, engineers, and application experts have pinpointed the five most congested production areas in food manufacturing plants. Here are their tips for mitigating these delays, starting with the loading of a system: #1 Bottleneck: Inefficient and Ineffective Loaders A common bottleneck is slow loading times preventing the start of batch mixing or...

7 Parts to Consider for a Planned Shutdown

According to Deloitte Institute, production has significantly increased all manufacturing sectors in the United States and continues to grow at a rate of 4% in 2022. This uptick in the manufacturing economy coupled with labor shortages across the globe continue to make material sourcing and parts management unpredictable. For planning purposes, parts that rely on...

Mepaco – 90 Years in the Making

The Mepaco® brand has been around for a long time. The company began in 1932 and operated out of Oakland, California.  The name Mepaco® stands for Meat Packers Equipment Company.  For the first 40 years, Mepaco® was a significant equipment supplier to deli meat, sausage, and smoked meat processors. Mepaco® offered loaf molds and slicers,...

What is the Difference Between Bead Blasting and Electropolishing?

  The process for sanitary stainless steel equipment fabrication starts with the selection of the metal and special handling of the material to prevent contamination. For many food and chemical producers, the level of finishing on processing equipment is determined by federal, state, and local regulatory agencies. In sanitary applications, the finish, as well as...

Doubling Cook Batches without Doubling Footprint

    This featured system doubled cooking batches within a minimal footprint used well-planned equipment selection, floor layout, and controls customization. Mepaco®’s cooking system featured side-by-side ThermaBlend® cookers, with a shared maintenance and sanitation platform.   SYSTEM FLEXIBILITY The multi-recipe prepared foods processor benefited from flexibility in production scenarios. The system can run two batches...

New ThermaBlend® Test Cooker

Mepaco has a new test cooker for processors who have new products or recipes that require cooking and blending. The test cooker is a 75-gallon ThermaBlend® unit with steam injection, vacuum, pneumatic covers and doors, and dual ribbon agitators. The ThermaBlend® is designed specifically for large scale batch operations. All of the components from the...

What NOT to do When an Agitator is Failing

Many processors make their own repairs to equipment, but in the case of agitators, the repair must be sound to avoid problems in the future.  Mepaco Service technicians are trained and experienced to troubleshoot shaft wear and are specialists in the repair of stainless steel.  Here is a list of what not to do when...

How to Know When an Agitator is Failing

In some cases, there is a particular event that causes agitator damage such as a shovel or fork falling into a piece of processing equipment.  However, there are several other signs that determine when an agitator is failing: The agitator starts developing cracks in the pipe or welds. The agitator starts rubbing the tub side wall....

4 Tips to Address Emergency Downtime

Mepaco’s Service Team is often called out on critical downtime situations.  The goal for any food processor is to prevent these situations and if they are unavoidable, mitigate the time and cost associated with the breakdown.  To start with, here are the top four calls that Mepaco Services receive for emergency support: Broken Shafts Agitators are failing when...