ProMinent Answers a Sweet Challenge
A candy manufacturer produces large batches of gelatin-like candy. Its prinicipal product featured a single color and a single flavor.
The company developed a new producr offering for the same gelatin-like candy but with five different colors and flavors. This requires implementation of a new extruding technology.
The Problem
The new processing machine required the color and flavor be injected at the point of extrusion to make a multi-strand "ribbon" of candy where each strand is a different color and flavor. At the point of extrusion, pressures are ~1200-1400 PSI and the flavor and color are to be metered proportionally to the candy base which is varying by the speed of the production run.
ProMinent Solves the Problem
ProMinent offered a skid package featuring ten (10) Sigma HK Pumps that is integrated with Emerson mass flow meters ad ProMinent D2C controllers.
The D2C controllers take the 4-20 mA signal from the Emerson mass flow meters and create a PID loop to control the speed and flow of the flavors and colors based on production speed.
Results
The new system allowed the candy manufacturer to make a candy "base" and change color/flavor combinations on the fly. Fomerly, process employees had to run the process until the batch was gone. stop, clean the equipment, make a new batch. and then begin production again.
- Old changeover time was 3-6 hours.
- New changeover time is NOW 6-10 minutes.