As blueberry processors continue to look for different ways to distinguish the quality of their packs from their competitors, buyers only add fuel to the fire by increasing their quality standards.  

Having effective destemming equipment is crucial to ensure that your pack will meet and exceed the ever increasing standards of private auditors.  On straight pack lines, your options are somewhat limited in that there is really only one way to destem an unfrozen blueberry and that is with a rod style destemmer.  Rod destemmers have been the industry standard for years.  In recent years, we have worked with a company to supply the only rod destemmer that can effectively destem blueberries at production rates of up to 12,000 lbs per hour.  We install this unit on all of our 12,000 lb straight pack and IQF blueberry lines.  Depending on the maturity, size and variety of blueberry, destemming efficiencies of 90% can be expected on this system. 

Other than having a second rod destemmer in line, the only other way to remove any remaining stems is to tumble the blueberries in a drum/tumbling destemmer (also referred to as a rotary destemmer) after they have been frozen.  This is an obvious step on IQF lines (that freeze the product in line) and is also common for all of our straight pack customers that re-pack their fruit after it has been frozen.  Our drum destemmers are highly effective in removing remaining stems and can be angle adjusted (even on the fly) to control how long fruit remains in the drum.  By controlling the duration that the blueberries tumble in the drum, you can get be as aggressive as necessary to ensure that you meet and exceed the stem count standards of every auditor on the market today.  We recommend that you keep throughput to 15,000 lbs per hour or less.  If throughput of 20,000 lbs or more is required, we can customize a double drum destemming system to effectively meet your production needs. 

Keys and Features of the Andgar Drum Destemmer

• Extreme duty stainless steel construction and components. 
  For an item like this that is mechanically turning hundreds of lbs of blueberries, you need a system that is equipped with only the heaviest industrial-grade components.
  
  
  • a) Our drive wheels are custom manufactured with materials that are specifically engineered to grip and drive our drive channel ribs. 
  • b) We couple our industry proven components with  heavy wall channel and tubing for all bracing and supports to prevent vibration. 
  • c) All of this is then put together with our  industry leading manufacturing practices to ensure a long, durable operating life.


• Internal flights for aggressive tumbling. 
  Since we use angle to convey the product, we equip our destemmers with 3 tumbling flights that run the full length of the drum to lift and drop the blueberries over and over again as they work their way through the drum.



• Angle adjustable bed. 
  You can control how long blueberries stay in the drum by adjusting the angle of the drum.   If you run into a particularly stubborn variety, simply lower the angle to retain the fruit in the drum for longer destemming action.



• Wire mesh drum surface.
  Square 3/16” ID wire mesh pattern catches stems as they tumble and also helps remove any ice that is built up on the fruit.   Optional catch pans can be added to divert stems and fines removal to bins below the unit.

Please call us today toll free: (888)437-2144 for a free needs assessment regarding your blueberry destemming or other processing needs.