APEC Blog

Welcome to the APEC Blog! Your resource for finding insights and equipment solutions for process automation, ingredient handling, weighing and batching, and more. Whether you’re an animal or pet food manufacturer, working in the food production industry, or another manufacturing industry, we cover a wide range of topics to help improve efficiencies, maintain quality, and solve your production challenges.

With a variety of different blog types, we have the resources to support manufacturers looking to streamline operations, reduce downtime, and stay ahead of industry trends. Check out our latest articles below.

Process Improvements for Pet Food Production

October 6, 2020
Increasing efficiency in your pet food production systems is a must. Increasing efficiency can mean many things. It might mean decreasing waste, lowering costs, improving speed, or increasing production. There are many ways to go about this. These improvements can also be difficult to compare…
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4 Key Sanitation and Safety Regulations in Pet Food Processing

September 29, 2020 Pet Food
Clean, safe food and a clean, safe work environment are important in processing food for human consumption as well as animal consumption. Many of the rules and guidelines for maintaining sanitation and preventing workplace hazards are the same between both of these environments. Taking precautions…
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Spray Equipment and Coatings: Problems and Solutions

September 15, 2020 Pet Food
Spray equipment and coatings present a number of challenges to food and pet food manufacturers. Spray coating systems, as well as the coating liquids, can be difficult to work with. Workplace hazards, equipment maintenance problems, expenses, down time and other problems may arise. In this…
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How to Choose Liquid System Pumps

August 25, 2020 Engineer's Guide
Pumps are one of the most valuable and integral parts of a liquid system. Whether you are working with liquid systems in food processing, pharmaceutical products, chemicals, or something else, it’s important to get the right pump. Choosing the right pump for your liquid system…
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Engineering Liquid Systems by Liquid Ingredient Characteristics

August 18, 2020 Uncategorized
The right liquid system can make food processing and production easy and efficient, while the wrong one can cause downtime, expensive maintenance and frustration. The optimal design of a liquid system is highly dependent on the characteristics of the liquid. Liquid systems that are designed…
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6 Hidden Expenses Eliminated Through Automation

August 4, 2020 Engineer's Guide
The ROI calculation for automated systems too often comes down to direct labor costs versus the cost of automation equipment. However, there are many aspects to consider. The value and cost-savings realized through automation goes beyond direct labor. If you are thinking about adding or…
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Preventing Feeder Bridging and Flushing with the TSS Feeder

July 21, 2020 Engineer's Guide
Ratholing, bridging, and flushing are just a few of the problems that can arise as material flows through a hopper and into a feeder. Instead of dealing with these issues as they arise, it’s best to optimize and feeder and hopper design to prevent or…
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7 Considerations for Process Automation: What is the Right Choice

July 7, 2020 Engineer's Guide
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=""]Automation can improve the efficiency, safety, accuracy and speed of a process, but it also requires careful planning. There are many factors to consider when deciding to automate a process and it can be difficult to know if automation is the right choice.  In…
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How to Select the Right Ingredient Feeder for Your Materials

June 23, 2020 Food Processing
The ingredient feeder is responsible for metering the right amount of ingredients from the source into the next process. This part of the ingredient system is often overlooked, which can cause problems later on.   Different materials, particularly fibrous, aeratable, abrasive and cohesive materials, can all…
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Process Verification in Manufacturing: Trust, But Verify

June 9, 2020 Engineer's Guide
In our previous post, we discussed the benefits automation equipment can have on business and on workers. One of the benefits of automation equipment and robots over humans is the machines’ ability to perform the same task continuously, consistently and reliably, without risk of injury…
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