INLINE WET MILL

The Boston Shearpump (BSP) from Admix is an inline wet mill that provides high throughputs at moderate to high shear rates. It is ideal for inline mixing of solids or powders into viscous liquids and offers consistent and repeatable shear capability. The BSP is for specific mixing requirements where “texturizing” of viscous products is required. It will mix, disperse, emulsify, pulverize, macerate, crush, homogenize and reduce solid particles at high volumes. It can also be used to precondition product going through a high-pressure homogenizer, improving total product quality while increasing homogenizer capacity and reducing homogenizer maintenance costs, Admix said.

800-466-2369; www.admix.com

ADAPTABLE PASTEURIZERS

AGC Heat Transfer said cheesemilk pasteurizers are designed to provide warm pasteurized milk to vats for culture. Control of the vat temperature can be achieved by two different methods. The bypass method requires a portion of the pasteurized cheesemilk to be bypassed around the regenerator plates, reducing heat transfer. The reheat method requires no regenerator bypass, but does require a separate section of plates to reheat the pasteurized cheesemilk. Both methods can achieve similar energy-efficiency. The bypass method generally minimizes investment cost, while the reheat method can result in longer run times. AGC Heat Transfer can create a pasteurizer design to suit each company’s needs.

800-825-8820; www.agcheattransfer.com

HIGH-SHEAR INLINE MIXER

The Shear-max by Ampco Applied Products disperses, dissolve, emulsifies, deagglomerates, homogenizes or simply blends. Designed for single-pass or batch-style sanitary processing, it is extremely effective at hydrating and dispersing semi-solids. The wedge-style rotor allows solids into the shear zone while efficiently employing motor horsepower. Available in single- and dual-stage designs, the Shear-max offers superior cleanability and tight rotor/stator tolerances, making it one of the most efficient and hygienic blender designs on the market, Ampco said. The company offers seven model sizes, from 1 to 800 gallons per minute, and droplet sizes as low as 1-10 microns.

414-643-1852; www.ampcopumps.com/shear-max/

DRY SALTER

Alpma Sulbana said it can provide the most advanced mozzarella/pizza cheese production plant in the industry. The Alpma Sulbana dry salter is a key component of that system. The dry salter is a flexible dosing and mixing system that can partly or completely serve as a substitute for brine baths. The offering measures the thickness and speed of cheese flow to regulate the rate of dry salt application. Salt transport and application are performed via an auger system into a specifically designed chute where cheese and salt are mixed. Salt concentrations up to 1.3% are achievable. After production, the dry salter can be cleaned in place.

414-351-4253; www.alpma.com

VIBRATORY FEED CONVEYOR

Deville Technologies said it partnered with Precision Food Innovations to unveil a brand-new hygienic vibratory feed conveyor. The feed conveyor, which features a high-ratio base-frame-to-pan design, reduces transmitted vibrations and offers superior 360-degree product disbursement (as opposed to a perpendicular line). From a hygiene standpoint, the vibratory feed conveyor is completely accessible for sanitation, featuring an all-stainless-steel construction, a solid round bar base frame and no 90-degree angles.

866-404-4545; www.devilletechnologies.com

EFFICIENT SHEAR BLENDER

Fristam Pumps said its inline FS Series shear blender has an intermeshed rotor and stator that allows it to quickly disperse particles into liquid on the first pass, saving processing time. Its rotor-stator combination eliminates unblended product and prevents lumps and masses for consistent, repeatable high-quality results. The FS blends a variety of products, including cheese food sauces, cottage cheese dressing, nonfat dry milk and processed cheese. Additionally, it is built for continuous duty and clean-in-place operations.

800-841-5001; www.fristam.com/usa

SEPARATORS, DETECTORS AND FEEDERS

Eriez said it protects processors and consumers from metal contamination through engineered magnetic separation and metal detection equipment, and streamlines product processing with vibratory feeding and conveying equipment. Magnetic separators effectively capture and remove ferrous contamination from product flows. The easy-to-use and reliable Xtreme metal detectors reject minute nonferrous metals with best-in-class sensitivities. Xtreme metal detectors can be tuned to meet the unique challenges of cheese-processing, including false detections.

814-835-6000; www.eriez.com

CHEESEMAKING TECHNOLOGY

GEA offers a full supply of cheesemaking technology — from milk processing through packaging — for cheese plants. GEA said it is companies’ partner in designing, engineering and manufacturing complete production systems for soft/fresh, semi-hard and hard cheeses. GEA has the technologies, expertise and experience required to meet every production target.

844-432-2329; www.gea.com

ADJUSTABLE SHRED HEAD

Urschel said it unveiled a new concept in cheese shredding: the microadjustable shred head (SH-14). It features 14 cutting stations versus the standard eight-station cutting head. Switching over to the SH-14 — which is made for use on Urschel’s Model CC series —  from the standard eight requires no special adapters. This development gives processors the ability to increase productivity without the expense of purchasing an additional shredder. The head produces a variety of 0.125-inch (3.2-millimeter) full and V shreds.

219-464-4811; www.urschel.com

HIGH-YIELD SLICER

Weber said it is a global leader in sliced cheese, with offerings ranging from small converter solutions to fully automated high-speed slice lines. Weber technology has the capability of producing traditional sliced offerings, as well as new and innovative applications. Launched three years ago, the S6 slicer delivers performance with the highest yield and lowest giveaway; it gets top marks for hygienic design. Weber offers complete line solutions with the latest in slicing, packaging and automation.

 816-225-3235; www.perfectportions.co/cheese

CHEESE PACKAGING SOLUTIONS

Harpak-ULMA’s cheese packaging solutions include thermoforming, tray sealing, vertical flow pack, horizontal flow pack machines and fully automated lines. Various packaging processes such as C-PAK technology are custom-designed for the guarantee of hermetic seal, recloseability, product freshness, quality, integrity, shelf life, desired presentation and distinct design. Harpak-ULMA offers a smart, connected packaging platform leveraging Rockwell Automation technology and components to provide one common framework for control, visualization, motion and information.

508-884-2500; www.harpak-ulma.com

LEVELING FEET AND JACKS

Koss 3-A Sanitary Standards Certified leveling feet weld to equipment legs and allow processors to easily level their equipment with just a few twists of a wrench. Koss said the feet help equipment run at maximum efficiency and eliminate stress-points due to imbalance. The feet are available in load weight options of 500 to 20,000-plus pounds-per-foot. Koss also offers 3-A Sanitary Standards Certified leveling jacks, which are gasket-sealed with no exposed threads, just like the feet, but no tools are needed. Just turn the wheel to quickly raise, lower, level and tilt.

920-469-5300; www.kossindustrial.com

BLOCK FORMER

Reiser said its Vemag cheese block former is a superior solution for producing a wide variety of cheese block shapes and sizes. It eliminates cheese waste and increases yields and profits by repurposing cheese trim, ends, scraps and other off-cuts to produce exact-weight cheese blocks. The USDA-accepted Vemag features a powerful positive-displacement double-screw pump that provides the highest levels of portioning accuracy. The double-screw pump transports product extremely gently and without crushing or smearing. A cutoff device controls the length of the product and ensures exact-weight portions with clean, even edges.

781-821-1290; www.reiser.com

SOMATIC CELL COUNTER

Milk quality matters in cheesemaking. Just an increase from 0.1 to 10,000,000 somatic cells per milliliter can mean as much as a 4% decrease in yield, according to Page and Pedersen International Ltd. The LactiCyte-HD somatic cell counter (SCC) gives accurate results for SCC in bovine, caprine, ovine or buffalo milk in less than one minute. An easy-to-use automated microscope method based on image cytometry can even help identify sub-clinical mastitis. The built-in camera takes pictures of the cells. The new CyteTrak embedded software displays and graphs data  — by cow, milking group or supplier.

508-435-5966; www.pagepedersen.com

CUSTOMIZABLE CHEESE BELTS

Relco LLC said it expanded its cooperation with Innovative Dairy Systems to increase its offering of draining/matting/cheddaring belts. The new cheese belts  feature proprietary belts for improved hygiene and life expectancy. Designs are individualized for curd height, retention time and style/number of stirrers to allow for a large variety of cheese and give control to the cheesemaker. Relco also added new options to the L-Tech lactose solution to address new requirements for finished product color and ash content. L-Tech lactose solutions can be customized for individual customer requirements while also adjusting for different feedstocks.

320-231-2210; www.relco.net

CHEESE PROCESSING SYSTEM

SPX Flow said its sustainable Cheasly system operates without any whey separation, eliminating waste and the need for specialized handling equipment. Opportunities include producing clean-label, high-protein cheeses, cheese with flavor/herb inclusions and spreadable cheeses. SPX Flow’s Fromage Frais and its variety of spreadable cheese production options fit many business requirements, reducing capital expenditures, operational expenses and go-to-market time. All critical equipment is manufactured in SPX Flow factories with assured quality and lifetime spares support.  

+33 232 2373 00; www.spxflow.com

ROBOTIC SOLUTIONS

Stäubli offers a full range of food-grade robotic solutions, which work alongside people in primary or secondary handling, processing or packaging. Stäubli’s robots operate in the most sensitive food manufacturing environments, delivering cleanliness, consistency and performance. Stäubli said its high-efficiency robotic arms have become the market leader, thanks to their fully hygienic design, technical performance and ability to eliminate bacterial contamination risks.

864-486-5421; www.staubli.com/en-us/

REVERSE OSMOSIS MEMBRANE ELEMENTS

Toray Industries Inc. said its high-pressure reverse osmosis (RO) membrane elements have improved rejection of small uncharged species compared to standard dairy RO or RO polishers. Constructed with hygienic materials, the membrane elements can run at elevated temperatures or pressures. Originally developed for use on condensate waters at 60 to 65 degrees Celsius (e.g., aroma recovery), the membranes can operate at lower temperatures for polishing RO permeate for river discharge and reducing chemical oxygen demand in vapor condensate. 

952-470-0522; www.toraywater.com