The Tea Machinery and Engineering Company (Temec), a Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) subsidiary, is planning to expand its portfolio to include less expensive and more efficient tea factory machinery.
The firm has been expanding its fabrication capacity and is now installing an array of equipment in factories including; Dryers,Tea packers, winnowers , bucket elevators , air preheaters, log splitters, conveyors, withering fans, ID fans and chimneys for boilers among others.
Eng. Samuel Ng’era, General Manager Temec says that farmers will reap multiple benefits from the firm’s innovations such reduced energy cost, affordable locally manufactured machinery with round the clock maintenance support, improved machine efficiency as well as reduced labour costs.
“Because of our unique designs and ease of running, you are able to eliminate a lot of labour which translates to savings for farmers,” he said.
Among the recently introduced equipment by Temec is a 14-blade withering fan replacing the six-blade fans (imports) that have been in use in factories. The new fan draws 6 amperes of electricity compared to the older fans that draw 11 amps and shaves off an hour in withering time.
“Electricity consumption in withering is one of the biggest cost centres in factories. The only way we can reduce this is by installing efficient fans that wither tea within a short time and draw minimum current,” Miano Kagema, Makomboki Tea Factory manager said in a statement on Wednesday.
Temec has also rolled out log splitters to replace circular saws in firewood splitting. The splitters use less power, require less manpower to operate, reduce wastage and are safer.
The firm is also installing air preheaters for boilers which helps to recover waste heat from the chimneys. This increases the boiler efficiency by about 4 percent.
Also, among its list of products are Induced drafts fans whose imported cost is about 2.3 million but Temec is able to locally fabricate it at a cost of 1 million.
With home-grown solutions, Temec is allowing factories to be more flexible by tailor-making equipment according to available space and immediate needs.
The company is constantly developing prototypes which are then produced as machinery that are suitable for local needs. The firm is continuously modifying its equipment to achieve maximum efficiency.
“We understand tea production better and can therefore produce the best tea machinery,” Eng. Ng’era said.
According to Temec, the local production has also proven a boon to tea factories as they no longer have to plan for lengthy import of equipment and can also count on quick turnaround time in case of a breakdown.
