Revamping of an old facility: La Molisana in Campobasso

Revamping of an old facility: La Molisana in Campobasso.

There are about 340 thousand tons of pasta that in the last two years have passed through the short pasta storage facility of the La Molisana pasta factory in Campobasso, the company that chose us as a supplier for works related to the revamping on its own storage facility.

A real mission that the customer has entrusted us in order to complete a revamping of the original facility dating back to the 80s and to meet the need to modernise the equipment and the process both from the hygiene and from safety and preservation of product quality viewpoint.

The real challenge?
Upgrading and revamping the facility while works were in progress, without interrupting the production activity, so as to limit downtime and not cause a loss for the company deriving from the block of production. There was also a complex environmental situation, as a result the facility to be upgraded was and still is located inside the company premises in a complex and not very easy place.

The starting point?
The original facility, on which we designed and performed the works, consisted of a mixed conveyor system, with buckets and belt conveyors, equipped with 51 storage silos, 4 feeding lines and 12 packaging outlets. Our work aimed at replacing most of the existing silos, which the customer wanted to improve from a technological and hygienic point of view.

Revamping works took about 2 years, from 2016. A detailed work of analysis and design of possible proposals and solutions was made and, upon consultations with the customer, we defined the layout of the new facility.

From the operational viewpoint, the intervention was organised into three macro-steps:

    • First step
      During the first phase, which lasted about 4 months, we created a sort of buffer, a system consisting of 13 silos located in a corridor which was no longer used. The buffer was designed to avoid lack of storage volume during revamping.
    • Second step
      In the second phase, which lasted about 8 months, we replaced 30 silos, powered by 4 production lines and with 5 outlets towards packaging, which connect to the sorting by existing belts, with as many new silos, including loading and unloading.
      The new silos, unlike the previous ones, are fed with bucket conveyors. The silos, characterised by a laminate panelling and an external structure made of FE steel, ensure greater hygiene and, taking advantage of the available height, they achieve a capacity greater than + 15-20% compared to the previous facility.
      During this phase, besides feeding the new silos the cross-bucket conveyors, being modular, have already been prepared for the next step, so that they can then be adapted in a short time.
    • Third step
      During the third phase, which took about 6 months, we replaced the other 21 original silos with 10 new silos with the same total capacity.
      The works were completed in November 2018 with the final test certificate and all the targets achieved, first of all being able to limit the facility shutdown for 15 days only in two years, by limiting the possible losses for our customer.

Mission accomplished!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

Total stored capacity 360 t.
Total silos 55
Production line 4 (out of which 3 with a capacity of 4.000 Kg/h and 1 with a capacity of 2.500 Kg/h)
Packaging lines 14
Duration of works 2 years