Charleston Coffee Roasters, located in North Charleston, South Carolina is a fast growing specialty roaster proudly offering batches made to order.
They wanted to scale their operations without compromise to the quality and freshness. To do this, they required lots of flexibility in their batching. Additionally, for whole bean orders, they wanted zero breakage and maximum freshness; and for ground coffee orders, they wanted the most precise grinding possible without any segregation in batches. They counted on MPE to help them deliver an array of totes, tubular drag conveyors, and high volume grinders to help achieve these objectives.
Green Coffee Handling
Charleston uses green bins for green coffee storage. They fill totes to transport the green coffee to one of three roasting stations.
Grinding
Charleston has two MPE 700 FX roller mills for grinding up to 2,000 lb/hr (900 kg/hr) of precision ground, perfectly densified coffee. Two 3″ (76mm) diameter Chain-Veys located on either side transport whole bean coffee to surge hoppers above the grinders. The surge hoppers’ purpose are to rapidly intake the coffee from the inlet (floor level) to the discharge, where they are fed. This allows emptying the totes quickly, and then frees up operators for other tasks. The surge hoppers feed the coffee into the grinder at their ideal infeed rates. Coffee then discharges into empty totes positioned directly under the mezzanine. The grinding operation requires minimal monitoring and is mostly automated as desired by the customer.
Blending
A Munson Blender is fed by a 3″ (76mm) diameter Chain-Vey. The blending is done post-roast, allowing coffees roasted with distinct roast profiles—each to bring out the coffees’ best qualities.
Roasting
An array of three roasters (left to right): A 90 Kg capacity roaster in the foreground, and two 120 Kg capacity roasters in the background; each fed by 3″ diameter Chain-Vey tubular drag conveyors.The Chain-Vey’s inlet sits low to the floor, allowing totes to be wheeled directly over them. Green coffee is conveyed in a 3″ diameter Chain-Vey to the roaster hopper. After being roasted and cooled down on the circular cooling tray, the coffee is transported using a destoning vacuum lift. The coffee rises up to a destoner hopper which sits on load cells. The coffee’s weight can be accurately measured and then dropped into the mobile totes for transport to blending, grinding, or packaging stations.
Packaging
Roasted whole bean or ground coffee is delivered to this bag filling station using totes. Totes empty into a Chain-Vey inlet on floor-level. Coffee is carried upward and discharged into one of two surge hoppers. One is for ground coffee, and the other for whole bean exclusively. The bag filling machine is configured for 12 oz bags.
Results
Charleston’s current system with nine Chain-Veys, two MPE roller mills, a GPX disc-style grinder, three MPE-designed dual hopper systems along with an array of totes work together to achieve all of their process system goals.
“We couldn’t be more happy with our MPE granulizers, Chain-Veys and custom conveyance components,” adds Gary Hull of Charleston Coffee Roasters.
Modern Process Equipment Corporation President Daniel Ephraim and Director of Business Development Scott Will explain MPE's complete plant systems for capsule manufacturing.
