How to Reduce Downtime in Food Processing Plants

Various meats that have been cut efficiently using industrial knives help increase food processing plant productivity.

With overhead costs soaring and labor in remarkably short supply, it’s never been more important to reduce downtime in food processing plants. As a critical industry consumable, food processing blades play an essential role in keeping your line rolling. Here’s why smart choices about your machine knives can boost food processing plant productivity.

Sharp Moves: Trim Downtime With Smart Blade Choices

Food processing is a fast-moving, labor-intensive industry. No matter whether you are a bulk processor handling tons of material on multiple lines or a specialty supplier providing premier niche products, plant downtime means higher energy, maintenance, and labor costs and lower returns on your equipment capital investment.

Industrial knives are a key consumable across the food processing industry therefore dependable, clean-cutting blades play an outsized role at the “sharp end” of every processing application. Making smart choices about how you source, handle, and maintain your critical cutting edges can help keep your line rolling.

Choose Quality Blades

Times are tough. With dependable workers ever harder to find, more and more industry players are embracing automation to boost productivity and reduce expensive plant downtime. Installing the most advanced processing systems in the industry makes no sense if your equipment is not equipped with quality cutting equipment to match.

Choosing premium machine knives produces measurable increases in cutting consistency and durability plus reduces the chance of potentially devastating catastrophic blade failures. As a global leader in machine blade manufacturing, TGW International offers the highest quality blades along with unparalleled industry knowledge and experience.

TGW’s skilled craftspeople bring a unique understanding of how machine knife composition affects blade hardness and cutting performance. We provide the optimal blade and edge design for your process, manufactured to the highest tolerances with the finest material grades.

TGW blades consistently cut cleaner, longer. That’s why we’re the #1 choice for so many leading food processing OEMs.

Choose the Right Blade Finishes and Coatings

Margins are tight in the food processing industry so small changes can make a big difference. Choosing the right finishes and coating for your industrial blades can measurably improve performance. Depending on your application, blades with the right finishes and coatings can:

  • Improve blade durability and edge retention
  • Combat corrosion in moist or highly saline environments
  • Reduce food adhesion and clumping

Fewer line stoppages to clear blockages or build-up means less plant downtime and product waste. Talk to an experienced manufacturer like TGW International to make sure you get the right coating for your equipment.

TGW will ensure your original blades have the optimum finish for your application and can work with you to find the right FDA-approved food-grade coatings to solve your specific process challenges, including:

  • Ultra-hard titanium nitride and titanium carbonitride treatments for unparalleled wear resistance and low-friction cutting
  • Diamond-like carbon coatings for blades used in highly acidic or saline applications
  • PTFE and other non-stick coatings for processing highly adhesive products

The right coating allows ultra-sharp blades to work better and last longer in increasingly challenging applications. Talk to TGW about how our coatings can keep your line moving.

Preventative Measures

Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest ones. TGW has found that in many cases machine knife performance can be preserved and durability can be increased by proper cleaning using the correct products to preserve blade coating and prevent corrosion.

While preventative maintenance requires machine downtime, ensuring equipment is consistently cleaned and checked reduces unplanned stoppages over time and helps avoid expensive emergency maintenance.

TGW can help you stop corrosion before it starts and protect your equipment from premature blunting. We can also supply you with our anti-corrosion blade cleaning solutions.

Resharpening

Food processing, particularly of meats and hard plant foods, puts heavy demands on industrial knives. In some cases, blades can be blunted in a matter of hours. Resharpenable machine blades allow you to limit replacement costs and equipment downtime, especially if you’re able to reapply edges on site.

TGW International produces both straight and circular resharpenable blades for beef and pork slicing as well as many other applications. Our quality materials and precision blade designs deliver long-life performance when first cleaned and then resharpened according to our specifications. Let us help you get the most out of your premium machine blades.

Knife Replacement

Rapid turnaround of both scheduled and unscheduled knife replacements is critical to maintaining equipment uptime. TGW International works with you to ensure you have a high quality replacement blade on hand when you need it.

TGW International is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of industrial blades, maintaining stocks of more than 2,500 knife designs for rapid product replacement turnaround times. We provide same-day shipping from our warehouse of all our in-stock blades.

We also offer incredibly short lead times on all our made-to-order blades. While some manufacturers are able to supply a custom blade order in five to six weeks, TGW’s end-to-end global supply chain allows us to craft and ship made-to-order blades in as little as two weeks.

TGW also offers comprehensive blade fulfillment solutions for our bulk blade customers. Our custom stocking agreements allow us to:

  • Ensure you have the blades you need when you need them, 100% of the time
  • Manufacture specialist blades in bulk and charge as you order
  • Protect your business from demand fluctuations or supply disruptions
  • Prevent unplanned downtime and minimize planned maintenance
  • Review your account quarterly to adjust to your changing business needs

TGW: Your Industrial Cutting Solutions Partner

TGW International is your partner for industry-leading food processing cutting solutions, delivered when—or even before—you need them. We’ll work with you to match or manufacture a blade that meets your specific needs. Our dedicated support team checks the grade and composition of every blade we ship to make sure you get the right cutting equipment every time.

We stock more blades than any other industrial knife supplier. Plus we can re-manufacture and ship made-to-order blades with minimal lead times, while our bulk-stocking plans allow us to anticipate your cutting needs ahead of time.

We know how important it is to keep things moving in the food processing industry. So, when your business is on the line, trust TGW!

Click below to learn how we work with our food processing partners to support automation and boost productivity.

FOOD PROCESSING AUTOMATION: KEY TO LABOR SHORTAGE

2 thoughts on “How to Reduce Downtime in Food Processing Plants

  1. Pingback: Guide to Knives for Industrial Chicken Processing - TGW International

  2. Pingback: Make Poultry Processing Blades Last Longer

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