Raque Firing on All Cylinders

The company’s long-established piston fillers have undergone changes that make them more efficient and easier to use. Raque Food Systems’ PF2.5 Piston Fillers—volumetric pumps that dispense extremely precise fills into ready-meal packages—have been mainstays in food production facilities for more than three decades. Mainstay or not, however, staying put has never been the goal at Raque. Success of the original PF2.5 stemmed in part from the product flow path in the piston fillers that Raque introduced, which provide a less tortuous path between the product hopper and product placement. “There’s less chance to damage any entrained air bubbles or to lose product integrity of peas or green beans,” says marketing director Timothy Kent. “Our machines can even pump whipped cream.” The other big difference is that the PF2.5 incorporated programmable logic controllers (PLCs) well before others. “Hence, the system could be set up not only to handle the product more gently,” Kent explains, “but also to anticipate changes in production line speeds and deposit the right amount of product at the right location and right time. “We’ve been kind of fat and sassy with that design and those concepts going on three decades,” Kent says, while emphasizing details of every machine Raque makes are constantly updated. “However, we felt there were personal standards we had to improve upon—those being reduced costs for our customer, reduced time to change from one product to another or reduce the time it takes to sanitize the system, and to better withstand harsh water washdowns.” In the process, the PF2.5 recently has undergone big changes. Raque redesigned PF2.5’s air cylinders in stainless steel. This was done in a fashion that allows complete interchangeability with its older cylinders. “We’ve figured out a way to do this and maintain the same costs,” Kent says. “That gives our current piston fillers a much greater lifecycle.” Old customers gain forward-compatibility. Among further advances, the PF2.5 is now made so the interface connection to the hopper and rotor block are completely interchangeable between the auger hopper system and the blender hopper system. “You can effectively have two systems with one piston filler,” Kent says. “Say you want to use it for mashed potatoes one day, which requires an auger hopper. And on the second shift you want a blender hopper to run a tomato sauce with suspended bits of steak or green pepper. You can install the blender hopper within minutes.” Raque piston fillers can incorporate a blender, auger, gravity or jacketed product hopper.

For more information on Raque Firing on All Cylinders talk to Raque Food System Sales Ltd