Challenges in modern ice cream production
Ice cream manufacturers make up a large proportion of the food and beverage industry. Their ice cream machines must guarantee high capacity utilization to ensure that operations are economical and can withstand strong competitive pressure.

The ice cream machines are also operated in an environment with temperatures well below freezing in many places. For example, ice cream is cooled to a holding temperature of around minus 25 degrees Celsius for storage. In addition, the sometimes high humidity poses an increased risk of corrosion for the machines, which has an impact on their service life.

These conditions can be exacerbated by the seasonal demand for ice cream. While ice cream producers often reduce operations in winter, they increase available production capacity in summer to meet demand. This and the environmental conditions can cause equipment to break down prematurely. The standard chains installed are particularly susceptible to this. When the ice cream manufacturer increased summer production from five to seven days a week, the operators on site noticed that the roller chains installed on the pallet lifters were not lasting long enough. The pallet lifters move heavy loads in a warehouse with temperatures below freezing.

Nickel-plated 16B-1 roller chains were used in the pallet lifter to lift loads of up to 800 kilograms. The lifter itself is driven by a 1.5-kilowatt motor with 32 revolutions per minute. With a production schedule of five days a week, the average service life of such a chain is around two years. When production was switched to seven days a week, the average service life of the installed chains fell to just six months. The inner links of the chains broke due to increased fatigue caused by the increased stress and low temperatures. This resulted in more maintenance work and higher repair costs for the palletizer.

The Neptune chain was specially designed for ambient conditions with a high moisture content. © Tsubaki

Initial inspection provides information
After an initial inspection, the Tsubaki engineers worked closely with the ice cream manufacturer's engineers. They selected a new drive element, the RS16B-1 Neptune roller chain. Compared to the nickel-plated chain originally used, this offers 20 percent greater fatigue resistance. In addition, the Neptune roller chain has a special coating that provides protection against condensation in the low-temperature bearing.

Using the Neptune chain, the engineers were able to improve the service life of the drive element during the more intensive production period and avoid premature breakage of the chain links. Maintenance costs for the palletizers were reduced, repair costs minimized and uptime maximized. The Neptune chain was specifically designed to operate in harsh, low-temperature environments and enabled the German ice cream factory to efficiently meet summer demand. as