No more milk shake in Munster.
“When you want to move something more than twice as fast as you do currently, you‘re facing a bit of a problem if that product happens to be buttermilk!“ So says Brian Welton of Clona Dairy in Munster.
Clona Dairy Products is a major supplier of liquid milk products in the Munster region, and one of the products they pack is buttermilk, into 1 pint and 1 litre packs.
The starting situation
The carton-filling machine was supplied by gravity from a bulk storage tank, but because of the viscous nature of buttermilk, production capacity was limited to about 2 m³/hr, as this was all that would flow through the pipe. Given the nature of the product, the flow rate also dropped off as the volume remaining in the storage tank fell.
Clona Dairy felt that installing a pump was probably the answer, but buttermilk is a delicate product that can be easily damaged by whipping or churning and this could occur if the wrong type of pump was used. So Clona asked seepex, manufacturers of a wide range of pumps for the food industry, to see if they could specify and install a suitable pump, with the target of doubling the flow rate.
The solution
seepex assessed the situation and recommended a CS progressive cavity pump as ideal for the application. This pump has a very gentle, low shear pumping action and delivers a constant flow irrespective of the level in the storage tank. The pump is specifically designed for hygienic applications and includes a CIP connection, essential in a dairy unit such as Clona‘s.
The benefit
Now successfully installed, the pump operates at a speed of less than 200 rpm, which has resulted in continuing, 100 % reliable service.
The client is very pleased. “We are not only achieving significant line efficiency improvements, we‘ve even exceeded our target and are now moving buttermilk at 5 m³/hr. We have not lost a minute‘s downtime since seepex installed the unit. Next year is going to bring expansion here at Clona Dairy and we will certainly involve seepex in our plans.“