Teflon Fluoropolymer Coatings For Food Processing

TEFLON® Coatings for the Food Processing Industry

Monday, January 6, 2003

The following are excerpts from an article appearing in the Business Outlook Section of the Albuquerque Journal December 9, 2002.

American Durafilm Co., Inc., a Massachusetts high tech company, has helped produce a cookie-cutter solution for a baker - literally.

Wire Breaks Slow Production

For the past seven years, Joseph's Lite Cookies, a producer of regular and sugar-free cookies and snacks, has struggled with production deficiencies that cost the company an estimated $200,000 a year in lost dough and labor.

The wire on the production line that cuts the dough into cookies at Joseph's Lite Cookies broke up to ten times a day. Every break meant uncut dough kept rolling through the cookie machine until a worker could fix the problem.

The Deming, New Mexico cookie factory produces regular and sugar-free cookies and snacks and ships them around the United States and to 16 other countries.

Founder and owner Joseph Semprevivo videotaped the wire problem and sent tapes to the manufacturer of the cookie machine in Italy. "But they couldn’t come up with a solution," he said.

The Search For An Answer Moves East

Enter Mark A. Varney, VP of the Coatings Division of American Durafilm® of Holliston, Massachusetts and Gilbert Benavides, a mechanical engineer at Sandia National Labs of Albuquerque, New Mexico. In a collaborative effort, Varney and Benavides, devised a solution utilizing DuPont™ TEFLON® brand coatings that cut the number of wire breaks about 300 percent, saving Joseph's an estimated $200,000 per year, Semprevivio said.

"It's a major improvement to the point we can hire more people for production," he said. Semprevivio plans to enlarge his 26 person workforce by hiring at least seven new employees.

Sandia National Labs receives tax credits through the New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program for providing free technical assistance to small businesses. "It was a good fit for Joseph's," said Benavidos. We realized there was a trade-off going on. Thin wires cut the cookie cleanly but broke as they rubbed against other machine parts. Thicker wires lasted longer but cut the cookies unevenly.

"The advantages of TEFLON® coatings in this particular application were immediately apparent," replied Varney. "Many of the food processing companies we work with have similar process issues and concerns inherent to their industry. They need coatings that provide excellent release characteristics, operate at high temperatures and are FDA compliant. The right choice of TEFLON® coating will meet all of these requirements." American Durafilm® is located in an 18,000 square foot facility specifically designed and built for coatings applications in Holliston, MA.

As one of three original charter members of the DuPont Licensed Industrial Applicator (LIA) Program, American Durafilm has applied DuPont™ TEFLON® Brand Coating for over fifty years. "Our broad knowledge bank enables us to work closely with designers, engineers, and purchasing agents to transform ideas into realities," says Varney. "From prototypes to large production runs we help customers achieve optimum solutions that take full advantage of the outstanding properties of DuPont™ TEFLON® Brand Coatings."

TEFLON® coatings approved for direct food contact use per 21 CFR 177.1550 Perfluorocarbons Resins include: