Cargill, Inc.: From vegetable oils and fruit juices to cocoa butter, most foodstuffs in our supermarkets contain basic ingredients that have been manufactured, processed, packaged or shipped anywhere in the world by Cargill. The globally active group employs more than 155,000 staff at its locations in 70 different countries. In the Netherlands, the company operates two production plants in Zaandam and Wormer where cocoa beans are processed into cocoa powder and cocoa butter. Product quality, for example the taste, colour and melting temperature, depends on many factors. For one thing, temperature plays an important role. At the same time, the hygiene requirements are high. Rittal’s products and services help ensure that all the requirements for a perfect cocoa bean can be met in full.
Rittal’s service technicians not only know the Rittal products inside out, they are also well informed about the applicable safety regulations. The combination of Rittal products and service makes a valuable contribution to process reliability.
Enclosure climate control for the grinding plants
One important operation is grinding the cocoa beans. Large and powerful electric motors drive the grinders. Each group of motors is driven by a frequency inverter and controlled by a programmable logic controller. The components in the enclosure emit waste heat and thus have to be constantly cooled in order to function reliably. Cargill Nederland relies on cooling units from Rittal for the climate control of its enclosures. The demands placed on the cooling output of the enclosure cooling units are high since the ambient temperature can reach up to 45 °C . Around 50 Rittal Blue e+ cooling units are in operation at the Zaandam plant.
Preventive maintenance for maximum process reliability
Cargill has signed a maintenance contract with Rittal to ensure the high availability of the cooling units and thus of the entire production process. All the cooling units are maintained, overhauled or replaced as needed in the context of a digital Life Cycle Maintenance (LCM) system. The Rittal service team collects the defective parts from Cargill free of charge, repairs them and then returns them to the factory. Wear-sensitive cooling unit parts are overhauled or replaced quickly and suitably. This way, optimum availability is guaranteed for the customer. Cargill’s technical department in Zaandam makes a major contribution to availability by keeping a specific number of ready-to-use replacement cooling units in stock at all times.
The preventive maintenance and overhaul of the cooling units also ensures high level of energy efficiency. If the customer decides – based on a service check – to replace a defective cooling unit with a new one, Rittal Service will not make any charge for the expert opinion and will also ensure the correct disposal of the old cooling units and coolants, including the necessary documentation.
Overview
- Project
- Cargill B.V.
- Location
- Zaandam and Wormer, The Netherlands
- Branch
- Food-and-Beverage-Industry
- Challenge
High demand for a hygienic environment while processing cacao beans
Reliable cooling of enclosures with environmental temperatures of 45 degrees
High availability of the cooling devices- Solution
50 Blue e+ devices and maintenance contract for maintenance, service and renewal of devices
Provisioning of spare devices