Furmano Foods started 99 years ago with just 360 jars of tomatoes and has grown to become a nationally recognized name. Their tomatoes, green beans, legumes and ancient grains, which are packed either in cans or pouches, go to market under the Furmano Foods brand and private labels. Over the last 20 years, Furmano has turned to Key Technology time and time again for the most reliable vibratory conveyors with superior sanitation. They run Key’s Iso-Flo® shakers on processing lines throughout their facility and added a lengthy Marathon® shaker in 2019 to distribute green beans to cutters.
“Our operation is difficult in a few ways. First, we have limited space, so our systems need to be compact. Also, our processing plant is wet, steamy and hot, which can challenge equipment. The ongoing labor shortage presents another problem,” said Jeff Bradigan, Facilities and Maintenance at Furmano Foods. “Our Key shakers help us overcome all these obstacles. They fit into our tight facility and hold up very well in the harsh environment with no issues. We depend on them to have great uptime and be easy to use, so we can quickly bring new operators up to speed.”
“We have been buying equipment from Key for decades. There’s a reason we keep going to them – they make the best vibratory conveyors out there,” explained Bradigan. “We have a few older shakers from other suppliers, and we’re slowly replacing them with Key to improve our efficiency. For example, our old green bean distribution shaker didn’t work well. The chutes would plug up and operators constantly needed to adjust them. We wanted a new system they didn’t need to fight with, so we went to Key because they really know what they’re doing.”
Available in lengths from 30 to 100 feet (9 to 30 meters) or more on a single unit, the Marathon at Furmano is 52 feet (16 meters) long. It conveys and distributes green beans from the snippers to 13 downstream cutters. Furmano’s Iso-Flo systems are installed on their tomato, green bean and legume processing lines and include options for dewatering, de-juicing, scalping, grading, fines removal and more.
“Dependability and uptime are two of the biggest reasons why we go with Key,” said Bradigan. “The older shakers we still have from other suppliers beat themselves to death over time, and we’re constantly welding the beds back together. Key designs perfectly tuned vibratory conveyors featuring relatively non-violent motion, so their beds and frames don’t need to be as beefy as those from others. Our Marathon and Iso-Flo systems are lightweight and extremely durable.”
