AAK Foods slashes pump strip-down, improves performance 14 December 2011

Food manufacturer AAK Foods says that swapping out an ageing progressive cavity pump for a MasoSine unit, at its Runcorn plant, has significantly improved performance and faster maintenance strip-down.

Engineering manager Ian Roberts explains that AAK initially tried a progressive cavity alternative, only to find it was taking three hours to strip, clean and rebuild – too long for a company that often undertakes short runs.

As a result, he turned to a MasoSine SPS4 sine pump, from Watson-Marlow, for an application involving the transfer of product, some of which is fairly viscous, from intermediate bulk containers to depositor feed hoppers on its filling lines.

"Because [new progressive cavity] pumps now have an extra chamber, we found it was taking two to three hours to strip, clean and rebuild [them]," says Roberts.

"We have a lot of short runs here – sometimes only one to two batches, so losing three hours to change product is simply out of the question," he adds.

Roberts explains that on this plant, there are several different requirements for pumps. "They have to pump everything from thin dressings to coarse grain mustards, representing a big range of viscosities. Furthermore, we need a gentle acting pump so the particulates within our foods are not destroyed in the transfer process."

In operation, the MasoSine pump's suction capacity of 0.85 bar allows fast and efficient transfer of high viscosity products at up to 91.2 m³/hr capacity, while its gentle, low shear action and large pumping chamber help preserve product integrity.

Roberts also points to the single rotor design and one-shaft, one-seal approach. "We can strip the MasoSine SPS4 pump down to component level for cleaning in seven or eight minutes," he says.

"It then takes 20—25 minutes to clean, but only because of the dwell time in cleaning solution required to ensure sterility. We then rebuild, which only takes 10 minutes. All-in-all we are up and running again within what we describe as the magic hour."

Brian Tinham

Related Companies
Watson Marlow Pumps Group

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