Pumps and valves roundtable: The discussion continues online
In "Best practices for pumps and valves in dairy processing plants," manufacturers discuss how the equipment can be used most efficiently, how to choose the right equipment and whether to buy only OEM replacement parts. In this dairyfoods.com exclusive, we include responses from these other manufacturers not included in the magazine article.
Dairy Foods is also interested in your views. Feel free to leave a comment.
Janet Heupel, Senior Account Executive, Advertising & Communications, Graco Industrial Products Division, Minneapolis
Dairy Foods: Discuss recent innovations from your company. These could be brand-new products or upgrades to existing products. Relate these innovations to dairy processing.
Heupel: Graco recently released new SaniForce piston pumps and unloaders to handle the most difficult dairy product additives like chocolate, fruit purees/paste and caramel with viscosities up to 1 million cps. These new piston pumps and unloaders are all designed with quick cleaning in mind. The pump lowers are quick knock down with sanitary flange clamp connections and have an easily removable, wash-down safe air motor shroud. Piston pumps alone can easily handle chocolates and purees while the unloaders can quickly evacuate drums and totes of pastes and caramels.
John M. Weaver, Sales and Marketing, Lee Industries, Inc. - Fluid Transfer Division, Philipsburg, Pa.
Dairy Foods: Discuss recent innovations from your company. These could be brand-new products or upgrades to existing products. Relate these innovations to dairy processing.
Weaver: We are now offering jacketed valves in fractional sizes of ½” and ¾” and are now ISO 9001:2008 certified.
Dairy Foods: Food safety in general and the Food Safety Modernization Act in particular continue to be top of mind for plant managers. Explain to these managers the role that pumps and valves play in food safety.
Weaver: The importance of Sanitary Valves being used in food plants has been overlooked for years. The Food Safety Mod. Act brings focus to making sure items such as valves and pumps are sanitary certified designs, keeping end products safer for consumers.
Dairy Foods: Demand for cheese and for yogurt, especially Greek-style yogurt, has processors adding lines or building new plants. Help them choose the right products. What should they look for when considering pumps and valves for a cheese plant? For a yogurt plant?
Weaver: Look for equipment and designs that are 3A sanitary certified, and CIP designs.
Dairy Foods: Processors want to produce dairy foods with minimal waste. They want to get the most from milk, ice cream mix, cheese curd, etc. How can processors use pumps and valves to control costs?
Weaver: Use equipment with minimal components to help eliminate lost batches.
Dairy Foods: Processors are looking at the CIP process to minimize their use of water, which is another expense. What are some best practices in using valves and pumps?
Weaver: Using CIP valves and truly cleanable designed equipment.
Dairy Foods: After-market parts are showing up. Some might be less expensive, but they are not always a great deal in the long run. What should a processor know about after-market parts for pumps and valves?
Weaver: Using after market parts results in poor performance and voiding any warranties. In the long run it actually hurts them. We reference our “Lee Quality Program” which includes inspections, PMI programs, certifications, and documentation.
Lori A. Neisner, Vice President, Ampco, Glendale, Wis.
Dairy Foods: Discuss recent innovations from your company. These could be brand-new products or upgrades to existing products. Relate these innovations to dairy processing.
Neisner: Ampco’s most recent innovation has dairy processors and other food plants eager to try our new ZP3 pumps. These pumps are a great addition to all dairy processors currently using the most popular circumferential piston style positive displacement pumps due to ease of maintenance and cost savings. These pumps offer multiple advantages over the competition. Improvements include: front-loading seals, in-line cleanability without further modifications to the pump, and a stainless steel gear case. Additionally, U2/TRA20/ZP2 pumps can be sent to Ampco for reconditioning and upgraded to the ZP3 design. Turnaround time for a complete rebuild is two weeks.
Dairy Foods: Demand for cheese and for yogurt, especially Greek-style yogurt, has processors adding lines or building new plants. Help them choose the right products. What should they look for when considering pumps and valves for a cheese plant? For a yogurt plant?
Neisner: This 3A pump has also passed the stringent EHEDG test and offers dairy processors a custom free drain design and elimination of dead zones in the shaft bore to improve CIPability while maintaining pump efficiency.
Dairy Foods: Processors want to produce dairy foods with minimal waste. They want to get the most from milk, ice cream mix, cheese curd, etc. How can processors use pumps and valves to control costs?
Neisner: These pumps offer the plant cost savings, less CIP time and downtime, and ease of maintenance. All Ampco positive displacement pumps have a stainless steel gear case included in the standard price, saving even more time on re-painting gear cases.
Dairy Foods: Processors are looking at the CIP process to minimize their use of water, which is another expense. What are some best practices in using valves and pumps?
Neisner: The features included in the ZP3 pump offer a shorter CIP time and less aggressive CIP process.
Dairy Foods: After-market parts are showing up. Some might be less expensive, but they are not always a great deal in the long run. What should a processor know about after-market parts for pumps and valves?
Neisner: OEMs, like Ampco, offer distributors and end users better quality and customer service due to understanding and controlling the entire manufacturing process along with test data to support published performance curves. Ampco is a full manufacturer located in Milwaukee WI where we machine, assemble, test, and ship all of our pumps.