Latest from Plant Operations
Poultry Manufacturer Outfits Feed Mill To Run for the Next 20 Years
Old Friendships Forge New Opportunities
Harrison Poultry chose NORD DRIVESYSTEMS as the preferred gearmotor supplier for their $52 million dollar facility for several important reasons.
NORD distributor partner Campbell Sales in Athens, GA has been a strategic integrator and supplier to the various Harrison facilities for many years, so it made sense to stick with the proven products, service, support, logistics, and expertise that Campbell provides.
"Will Campbell talked me into installing a NORD gearbox at our old feed mill in Winder, Georgia,” says David Sailors, Operations Manager for Harrison. “That was twenty years ago, and those units are still running. We've bought several others since then with the same results.”
So with Campbell Sales on board, at that point, Mr. Sailors, Harrison’s Corporate Project Manager Nick Strange, and the rest of the Harrison team set out to design and build an ultra-modern facility with the capacity to support their grain and feed processing needs for the next 20 years and beyond. Hogenson Construction was selected as the general contractor for the massive project.
The Harrison, Hogenson, and Campbell teams worked together to specify, size, and select NORD gear reducers and Nord MAXXDRIVE industrial gear units. Nord application engineers then worked directly with the various USA manufacturers who would eventually provide the mill systems and equipment, in order to provide guidance on design, assembly, and commissioning.
NORD’s Helical Bevel gear units, CLINCHER Parallel Shaft gear units, and MAXXDRIVE industrial gear units offered several product advantages for Harrison.
“That was 20 years ago, and those units are still running. We've bought several others since then with the same results.”
The NORD solutions eliminated the need for outdated shives, pulleys, belts, guards, etc. They also use a direct-drive concept that's safer and more efficient. It was also more cost-effective for Harrison due to reduced maintenance and service requirements commonly attributed to belts and pulleys. Fewer moving parts also enhanced the overall reliability and reduced the number of wear parts that needed to be stocked.
For this project, all NORD gear units from 3 to 200 HP were fitted with NEMA input adapters for ease of motor replacement. Over 75 different NORD selections were used on the feed mill project ranging from 4,000 to 500,000 lb-in torque. NORD’s product offering was also a key factor in the decision-making process and allowed Harrison to consolidate all requirements to one key vendor partner.
The Results are Awesome
“We have enough space to store around a million bushels of grain now,” Sailors says. “There are two pellet lines in place with a total production capacity of 14,000 tons of feed per week, but we can increase that to 21,000 tons by adding a third line. There are also plans to install a pair of silos for soybean meal, giving us an additional 5,000 tons of storage capacity at some point. Aside from all that, we had to construct the loop track coming off the main rail line, which is about a mile and a half long and has two auxiliary tracks that can each hold 15 C114 railcars. It’s a very impressive facility.”
“We have two grinders cranking out 170 tons of corn each hour, and our mixer capacity is 240 tons per hour,” Mr. Strange says. “There are approximately 6,000 (combined) horsepower worth of motors here at the mill and 95% of them have a NORD gearbox attached. They’re a lot more energy-efficient, something that’s increasingly important these days.”
From Humble beginnings to a Worldwide Presence
In 1949, World War II veteran and graduate of the University of Georgia’s Agricultural Economics program Harold Harrison spent $1,000 on an incubator to hatch approximately 3,000 chicks per week. By 1955, he was selling 150,000 birds weekly and soon built his own processing plant in Bethlehem, Georgia. Today, the company has more than 1,000 employees.
Harrison Poultry produces approximately 315 million pounds of chicken annually. Their product mix includes whole birds, bulk parts, and boneless chicken, most of it destined for domestic and international customers in either the commercial food processing or restaurant industries.
The company known for providing “Golden Goodness” continues to expand and is ranked the 20th largest poultry producer in the USA, providing a livelihood for farmers, families, and stakeholders around the world. www.harrisonpoultry.com
NORD DRIVESYSTEMS has been developing, producing, and selling drive technology for more than 50 years, and is one of the global leaders of full-service providers in the industry. In addition to standard drives, NORD delivers application-specific concepts and solutions for special requirements such as energy-saving drives or explosion-protected systems.
