Customer Testimonials
Industry: Meat & Pork Processing | Application: Spiral Oven / Thermal Processing | Product Area: Spiral Conveyor Belt & Take-Up Assembly
Ashworth resolved recurring spiral oven belt failures at Smithfield Foods' Cumming, GA plant — three belt replacements in two years — by supplying 650 feet of new belt and redesigning the take-up assembly from a single to a double configuration. The upgrade doubled available tension capacity, eliminated the root cause of the wear-strip and belt failures, and reduced unplanned downtime on the ready-to-eat sausage patty line.
The Challenge: Recurring Spiral Oven Belt Failures
When the spiral oven belt at Smithfield Foods' Cumming, Georgia plant needed replacing for the third time in two years, this was no longer a routine maintenance item — it was a pattern. Persistent belt tension issues were driving frequent wear-strip replacements and premature belt failure, a reliability gap that had existed since the spiral oven's original installation.
For a ready-to-eat sausage patty line run by the world's largest pork processor, the stakes of an unreliable spiral conveyor belt were straightforward: every unplanned stop was lost production. Smithfield needed a spiral conveyor belt manufacturer who could not only replace the belt, but resolve what was causing the tension and wear-strip issues in the first place — reducing downtime risk, improving oven reliability and performance, and extending the conveyor system's service life without interrupting a high-volume meat processing operation.
Why Ashworth: Spiral Conveyor Belting Expertise for Meat & Poultry Processing
Smithfield engaged Ashworth for its specialized expertise in spiral conveyor belting and thermal processing applications — and its deep, specific knowledge of spiral oven systems and take-up assembly upgrades. As a conveyor belt manufacturer with decades in spiral oven and spiral freezer belting across the food processing industry, Ashworth brought experience most belt suppliers can't match on this specific failure mode.
The Solution: A Redesigned Take-Up Assembly for Long-Term Spiral Reliability
Ashworth's team began by reviewing the belt's condition and the surrounding conveyor system as a whole, distinguishing what needed straightforward replacement from what needed re-engineering. That review became the basis for a solution addressing both the worn belt and the system-level cause of its failure.
The scope: 650 feet of new spiral oven belt, paired with replacement belt guides, wear strips, and support rails. New sprockets and guide rails followed. And because recurring tension issues were the root of the original failures, Ashworth's engineers redesigned the take-up assembly from a single to a double configuration — increasing the system's tension capacity for the long term, not just for the next cycle.
Dalton Mozingo, Senior Project Engineer
Smithfield Foods
The Results: Reduced Downtime, Extended Belt Life
The take-up assembly upgrade did more than solve the immediate spiral oven belt problem — it proactively eliminated the risks that come with an aging conveyor system, and delivered reliability improvements across the spiral as a whole.
When we began experiencing ongoing issues with our spiral oven, we knew we needed an expert partner to help us identify the root causes and develop a long-term solution. After finding Ashworth on line, I reached out and was quickly contacted by Mike Prendergast, who arranged an onsite visit to review our challenges.
From that first meeting, I felt confident that Ashworth had the knowledge, experience, and resources to help us solve our problems. Their team took the time to understand our operation and provided practical recommendations backed by a strong understanding of spiral oven and freezer design.
As the project progressed, Ashworth's engineering team returned to our facility to walk us through their recommendations and explain the design considerations behind them. Their willingness to educate us on the engineering principles involved gave us a great deal of confidence in the proposed solution. After reviewing and approving the submittal drawings, the belt and replacement components moved into production.
What impressed me most was Ashworth's commitment to continuous improvement. Just before production began, their engineering team identified an opportunity to further improve the design and recommended a different belt configuration. I appreciated that multiple engineers reviewed the project and were focused on finding the best possible solution rather than simply moving forward with the original plan.
Once all the components arrived onsite, the installation was completed over the course of a week. The Ashworth team worked exceptionally well together, and the entire process was professional, organized, and efficient. Their onsite support and attention to detail made the installation go smoothly and reinforced our confidence that we had chosen the right partner.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed working with the Ashworth team. I would especially like to thank Mike Prendergast, Jim Nelson, Aaron Fouch, Bryan Hobbs, and Marty for their professionalism, technical expertise, and commitment to the success of the project. Their support throughout the process helped deliver a solution that not only addressed our immediate challenges but also improved the long-term reliability of our spiral oven system.
Dalton Mozingo, Senior Project Engineer
Smithfield Foods
Spiral Oven Belt Reliability
Recurring tension issues almost always trace back to an undersized take-up assembly. A single take-up design has a fixed ceiling on how much tension it can apply as a belt ages and stretches — once it hits that ceiling, the belt runs loose, wear strips absorb the extra load, and premature failure follows. We resolve this by upgrading to a double take-up assembly, which roughly doubles available tension capacity and fixes the cause instead of the symptom.
A take-up assembly keeps a spiral conveyor belt properly tensioned as it stretches over its service life, protecting wear strips, guide rails, and the belt itself from premature wear. We build both single and double take-up configurations — double designs carry roughly twice the tension capacity, which matters on high-throughput or long-service spiral ovens and freezers.
A well-specified spiral oven belt should run for years, not months. If a belt is failing within one to two years, that's a signal of a system-level reliability issue — usually tension capacity or wear-component design — not normal wear. We recommend a full system review at that point, not another like-for-like replacement.
Meat and poultry processing, ready-to-eat and prepared foods, bakery, and snack production all depend on spiral conveyor belts to move product through cooking, freezing, or proofing in a compact vertical footprint. We supply spiral oven and spiral freezer belts to pork processors and other high-volume food manufacturers running lines around the clock.
The most effective way is to address root-cause reliability issues — undersized take-up assemblies, worn guide rails, degraded wear strips — during a belt replacement, rather than making a like-for-like swap that leaves the same failure mode in place. We start every belt replacement with a system-level review for exactly this reason.
Smithfield Foods is the world's largest pork processor and America's largest pork producer. Its Cumming, Georgia facility produces ready-to-eat sausage patties on a spiral oven line supported by Ashworth conveyor belting.
FACING A SIMILAR BELT RELIABILITY CHALLENGE?
Ashworth's engineers can review your spiral conveyor system the same way — and build a solution that solves for today and the next decade.
