Samherji Fiskeldi Improves Belt Cleaning Efficiency with ZeroSplice Technology

Customer Objectives

Samherji Fiskeldi is the world’s leading producer of arctic char. The company’s land-farming operations and processing plants in Iceland produce nearly 3,000 metric tons (3,300 tons) of arctic char per year. In order to maintain hygiene standards at the company’s Sandgerði plant, workers performed regular monthly shutdowns to clean the modular plastic belting (MPB) and framework. This approach required removing the belts for cleaning during each cycle, a labor-intensive process that proved costly over time. Though MPB is easier to repair, its harborage points and hard-to-reach drive components can make cleaning more difficult—especially in seafood processing plants. Searching for new, innovative technologies that could address their challenges, Samherji Fiskeldi’s representatives reached out to Intralox.  

Intralox Execution

We recommended ThermoDrive belting with ZeroSplice technology, our advanced belt system for hygienic food processing. While thermoplastic belting is known for its excellent hygiene performance, it traditionally requires time-consuming repairs due to splicing. ThermoLace Heavy-Duty Edge’s fully enclosed design enables our ZeroSplice technology to be combined with ThermoDrive homogeneous belting. This meant Samherji Fiskeldi could retain all the benefits of MPB while adding the superior hygiene of a solid thermoplastic structure. In March 2025, plant employees installed their new belt in only 4 hours using guidelines from Intralox.

Results

The ThermoDrive Series 8026 Flat Top belt ran smoothly, requiring noticeably less energy to operate than the MPB Samherji Fiskeldi used previously. Since switching to ThermoDrive belting with ZeroSplice technology, Samherji Fiskeldi hasn’t needed to remove the belt for cleaning at all. Instead of 12 expensive shutdowns each year, there are now four. Daily cleaning time has been significantly reduced by 3.3 hours per week—a 70% decrease overall. This saves Samherji Fiskeldi approximately €5,000 EUR each year. ZeroSplice’s reliable joint system has also simplified Samherji Fiskeldi’s maintenance requirements, allowing them to stock only a single belt section in inventory.