Separators Blog

So far, 2023 has proven to be full of supply fluctuations, innovation, and a focus on sustainability. And 2024 already looks to be shaping up to be an interesting year, with an increased pressure on companies to innovate and expand product offerings.

As we look ahead to future change, here are the top four trends we can expect to see from top dairy companies in the year ahead.

The Dairy Foods Magazine's The Dairy 100 List covers the top dairy companies in North America. This list includes brands, products made, and plant locations for the largest processors of fluid milk, ice cream, cheese, butter, cultured dairy products, dairy ingredients, and other dairy-derived foods and beverages.

By working closely with dairy plants, we have unique insights into the results posted by Dairy Foods Magazine. So, join us as we cover this year’s top 10 dairy companies to watch, and the factors that are driving their success.

From eating syrup on your pancakes to wearing a silver necklace, you have benefitted from industrial centrifuges far more often than you probably realize. Yet, despite a centrifuge’s integral role in our society, many people have never heard of this vital piece of equipment.

Here at Separators, service is our core offering. Over the years, we’ve put a lot of time, attention, and resources into ensuring the completeness of our centrifuge service capabilities. We’ve also been thinking about how we can present our services in ways that are clear to any prospective customers who might be considering working with us. In this VLOG, I provide a quick, easy outline of our service offerings. Check it out:

Minimizing your centrifuge’s electricity and water usage can save your plant a lot of money. A well-maintained centrifuge can last a lifetime, meaning that optimizing your centrifuge’s operations can result in big savings in the long run.

Having a balanced bowl is vital to ensuring that your bowl lives a long, safe, and productive life. Just like you balance the tires on your car, your bowl should be balanced on a regular basis. An unbalanced centrifuge will not operate at peak efficiency and could even be dangerous. To keep your operators safe and your product quality high, centrifuges should be serviced to restore balance.

Let’s set the scene: Your company is shorthanded and struggling to hire staff, high employee turnover may be a challenge, the job market is increasingly competitive, and experienced employees are costly. On the contrary, there are an estimated 300,000 interns in the U.S. annually. Interns are typically current students or recent graduates seeking hands-on experience within a professional setting. In many fields, having a degree is no longer enough to secure the all-important graduate job offer in today’s world. 

At Separators, we like sharing our hard-won knowledge and automated centrifuge insights with our clients. We believe that smart, driven plant managers and technicians value their equipment, and share a natural curiosity that leads to exciting innovations.

That’s why we prodded our seven-year veteran automation engineer, Jordan Vande Brake, for some insights into why he thinks automation will continue to play a vital role in dairy production facilities.

There’s nothing quite like a global pandemic to help you figure out what’s really important. Lucky for us, we were already working on just that. We were toiling behind the scenes, taking a deep dive into Separators Inc. as a company.

Asking questions like: What kind of people are we? What do we stand for? How do we serve our customers? As it turns out, we had a pretty great idea of who we were, and we’ve been doing a lot of things right, but our exterior was a little behind the times. It didn't show us as a company of experts and craftspeople. A company centered on your centrifuge. 

Until now. 

Equipment breakdowns can be a nightmare for production facilities. One machine down and the whole operation comes to a screeching halt. Without a moment’s notice, there’s a full crew without a moving line to work on. Supervisors and managers hurry to locate the source, troubleshoot the issue. Every minute of downtime equals dollars disappearing into thin air.