Achieving top efficiency with minimal waste is important in any plant, but even more so in a commodity product operation such as egg processing. Calmar Foods (Calmar, IA), a division of Sparboe Food Corporation, cracks and ships more than 216,000 lb. of raw liquid eggs per day at its multi-building complex.
Running 16 hours a day, five to six days per week, new self-priming pumps from Fristam move raw cracked eggs through filters, cooling presses, in and out of holding tanks and transport trucks with added efficiency and productivity. "We installed our first Fristam pump almost nine years ago," says Shane Bell, plant manager. "Prior to that we were using PD [positive displacement] pumps and experienced all kinds of problems. We were replacing seals and gaskets on a weekly basis. Stainless steel rotors and rubber impellers also required replacement three to four times per year. Shell particulates in the freshly cracked eggs, prior to filtering, quickly wore down internal parts, reducing pump efficiency and increasing maintenance time and costs."