Keeping the Food & Beverage Industry Moving with NORD Drivesystems

Today's Guest

Tony Pariseau, NORD Drivesystems
Key Market Specialist Focusing On The Food And Beverage Industry

Tony: Well, thank you, Erin, for having me on your podcast. To go into who NORD is, so NORD was founded back in 1965 by two men that had a great idea to start a gearbox/gearmotor manufacturer. And they started this out of their garage, which is just amazing to me, but it's part of the facts here. We are independently owned, family-owned and operated. The headquarters is in Germany and today, NORD manufactures three components. We've got gearboxes, we've got electric motors, and we have variable frequency drives or VFDs as it's talked about in the industries. Today, we've also got sales support and distribution within 80 different countries around the world. And within those countries, there's 37 manufacturing plants, again, spanning the globe.

Food Processing: Can you talk to me about what products NORD sells in the food and beverage industry?

Tony: Currently, for the food and beverage industry, we've got high-efficiency motors, gearboxes that they actually combine together for a complete gear motor solution. So virtually, we've also got panel mounted or decentralized VFDs for the high-precision applications when it comes to the food and beverage industry. If you think about it, there's a product that needs to be moved from point A to point B, NORD moves it, so down the production line. Within that, we've also got a product that is a alternative to stainless steel, and NORD calls this NSD tupH, with a smooth body motor for the hygienic and high-pressure caustic washdown clean areas within the food industry. Within that industry, there are many areas, some that require this alternative to stainless steel that have to hold up to the caustic washdowns. And then you've got other areas that we've got a painted cast iron solution that works very, very well and still is a washdown rated gear motor solution.

Food Processing: Are there other applications NORD can accommodate?

Tony: Yes. Outside of the food and beverage industry, NORD offers complete solutions for over 100 different industries, including airport baggage handling, intralogistics, bulk material handling, the crane industry, mining, automotive, municipalities, just to name a few. As you could imagine, there are varying, high-specialized requirements for each of these industries and NORD has successfully fulfilled them over the years. You know, myself, I've been in the industry with NORD since 2005, and there are multiple, multiple different industries that are out there, and we have multiple different solutions for those industries.

Food Processing: Are there any new products you have available that our listeners should know about?

Tony: Something that I really take to heart with NORD is we are a very innovative company that continues to release new products each and every year. When you think about it, gearboxes or gearing, it is an old industry. It's been out there for many, many years, surely 100 years plus. It is very enticing to me, being an employee to NORD, to know that they are investing into the future.

NORD DRIVESYSTEMS has developed and manufactured gearboxes, motors, and control products for over 50 years, and is a global leader in the Food and Beverage industry. In addition to conveyor drive systems, NORD delivers hygienic, application-specific configurations that handle everything from processing to packaging. These extremely diverse gear units offer torques from 88 to more than 2.4 million lb-in, motors ranging from 0.16 to 1,341 HP, and VFDs with power up to 200 HP. Inverter solutions are available for conventional control cabinet installations as well as for decentralized, fully integrated drive units. NORD also has a global sales and service network that guarantees optimal availability and local, customer-focused service. Learn more

The latest releases that we've got coming out today are, one, the DuoDrive. This is an all-in-one package, and it is a motor and gearbox package that looks like one item. The gearbox and the motor are all in one. Next, we have IE5+ motors. In today's market and there's that green initiative and everybody is trying to save cost out in the industry. It could be the food and beverage, it could be the automotive, it could be the intralogistics industry, everybody wants to reduce the cost of electricity to run these motors.

We have an IE5+ motors that are over and above the standard today and virtually, we've got these out in the marketplace today, that can run these gearboxes and reduce that overall cost. Third, we've got a NORDAC ON/ON+. It is a motor-mounted variable frequency drive or VFD that mounts directly to the motors. And these units, currently they're going up to a 1-horsepower, and down the road, they'll continue to grow the size of those into multiple horsepowers as the industry requires. Those are the three today that we're really focusing on for the future.

Food Processing: What other products do you offer that our listeners might need in their plants or facilities?

Tony: With any of these large plants, there is always the concern of preventative maintenance. That is kind of a buzzword that is out there today. And NORD is really focused on this preventative maintenance. We've come out with a new solution called Condition Monitoring, and what this does is it monitors the gearboxes and the motors to predict if there's gonna be a possible failure in the future. Trying to eliminate that, "Uh-oh, the gearbox failed today, and we don't have a spare unit on the shelf." We're monitoring the gearboxes and the motors to determine maybe that this unit has a bearing that is starting to vibrate a little bit within the gearbox, so they can determine that there could be a potential failure coming. Or, within this Condition Monitoring, we can monitor the amp draw to make sure that that motor is running very, very efficient to the most efficient capabilities it is designed for. And if it starts to draw too many amps, we know that there's a problem.

Or, it could be a situation where we just wanna monitor or the plant wants to monitor the oil within the gearbox to make sure they know when to replace that oil or change the oil. And this Condition Monitoring can review that and throw a signal when that gearbox needs to be serviced. So that is a very big buzzword today, again, preventative maintenance, and we have that Condition Monitoring solution that is available today.

Food Processing: Well, that definitely sounds exciting. Can you talk to me about some of NORD's products benefits?

Tony: Sure, Erin. Number one is our high quality. That has been a focus since the beginning of NORD back in 1965, when the two original founders, Mr. Schlicht and Mr. Küchenmeister, put into place was quality. What do you have from quality? Results and longer life. We had 20 million standard gearbox/gearmotor solutions that the customers can choose from. And within that could be the motor solutions, it could be a VFD configuration solution that's out there to fulfill any of the customer's applications. We've also got high startup capabilities with our motors. They have 275% momentary overload on startup. That is a very key factor within the NORD portfolio that is out there.

Low rotor inertia on our motors. As you could imagine, out in the marketplace these motors and gearboxes will need to start and stop multiple times per hour. And with these motors, I've seen applications where it starts and stops up to 5,000 times per hour, and that is a true capability of our motors.

Something else that we've got within our gearbox solutions is a QUADRILIP seal. What is that? So a quad, quad is four, correct? We stack two seals, there's a double lip seal and a single lip seal on top of each other to ensure that the components, or the oil, does not go out of the gearbox. And in between those two seals, we put a grease pack. There’s four layers of sealing that, virtually, the oil would have to get past to get out of the gearbox. Not only the oil getting out, but the contaminants getting in from the exterior of that gearbox. We want to make sure that that does not happen. So that QUADRILIP seal is a very, very big focus or a quality of NORD that we feel definitely maintains that high-quality value to the customer. These are what I consider to be the largest benefits to our customers today.

Food Processing: What can food and beverage companies expect when working with NORD?

Tony: Working with NORD gear, we have the industry-leading deliveries. NORD has always been very focused on deliveries. So out there in the marketplace today, it's kind of a challenge today as you could imagine with the supply chain delays that are going on in the world today, but NORD still maintains the industry-leading deliveries in the marketplace for gearbox and gearmotor manufacturers around the world. Another thing we have is our greater flexibility. One thing that we can do within NORD, if the customer needs options for that gearbox, let's just say a special output shaft on that gearbox, NORD has our full-fledged machine shop that we can actually design a special shaft. We can implement the special shaft into the gearbox that they're looking at using for their application. And this does not incur any longer deliveries because we have the capabilities to make that special shaft right on site. So that is a huge opportunity that NORD can offer there.

The global presence is another one. NORD has manufacturing sites in 37 different countries around the world. We have representation in 80 different countries around the world, that no matter where the customer is shipping their machine or shipping their conveyor, NORD has representation there just in case there could be any issues or, potentially, they could need a product in that area as quickly as possible, NORD has the representation there. Another thing that the food and beverage industry can utilize is the high customer satisfaction. NORD takes that to heart. No matter if you're looking for a replacement unit or you're looking for a new unit or, potentially installing a whole plant, NORD has the customer satisfaction when it comes to our customer service. We have top-notch customer service. We have top-notch engineers that can help with the applications. That is a big feature that the food and beverage industry can look from NORD, with NORD.

NORD truly cares about our customers. The plain old ease of doing business is the key factor with NORD today. If you need a replacement, we don't have expedite fees. If you can let us know when you need it, a lot of times we can ship it same day or next day. That is a big factor for NORD today. And we succeed when our customer succeeds. No matter in which industry, if it's the food and beverage, or airport industry, or the intralogistics, or bulk material handling, all these factors are determined and are maintained across all industries for NORD Drivesystems.