PET Food Processing - March 2019 - 60

EQUIPMENT

the pumping system may simply be maintaining that
temperature using an external water or steam jacket.
When it comes to temperature control in mixing, Ferree
notes it depends on the product. The company's mixers are equipped with a jacket that allows for cooling or
heating to ensure proper temperatures are maintained.
The speed and efficiency of mixing is also dependent
upon the product. Mixers can be equipped with variable speed agitator drives which allow them to be programmed for specific recipes. Both time and speed are
equally adjustable based on the needs of the batch and
can be saved for easy recall within the operating system.

Sanitation and product changeovers

It's important that
materials and equipment are configured
appropriately to
avoid complications
downstream caused
by improper mixing.
Mepaco

Improved sanitation and quick product changeover are relative to the demands of the customer
within the given environment. It's critical that processing equipment adhere to the strictest standards
in sanitary design. Hoffmann says electropolishing
product contact surfaces prevents build-up and fosters easier transfer. In addition, electropolished surfaces are easier to sanitize with less manpower, water
and chemicals.
"When we talk about product changeover and sanitation, it really starts with sanitary design - if you
can have smooth finishes, equipment will clean out
really well from batch to batch and during sanitation it will clean up as well," he says.
"When I think of transfers and
batch to batch, no loss yield
and avoiding product stuck in

corners starts with good sanitation design."
Zeppelin Systems' DymoMix hydrates dry ingredients with a variety of liquids and can be used as a premixer or, in some cases, as the final mixing element.
"The unit has a small footprint in terms of the wetted
product area, making cleaning and changeovers faster
and simpler than when using a larger, more traditional
mixer," Cross says.
Shaffer Mixers offer an open frame design built from
stainless steel plates and tube construction with water
tight enclosures, which provides easy access for sanitation and maintenance. "Additionally, we have an optional clean-in-place system for full washdown of the agitator and the bowl between batches," Ferree says.

Reducing bottlenecks

Bottlenecks in the mixing process usually stem from
operators having multiple responsibilities and being
downstream or away from a mixer when operator intervention is needed. "Our mixers can be configured to automatically integrate with ingredient systems, and, with
the use of programmed formulas, the mixer can basically operate on its own from the addition of ingredients
to discharge," Ferree says.
Selecting the proper size mixer for the production
volume is important. Hoffmann says equipment should
be sized so that it's ready to deliver product at the rate
needed to keep the processes in sync. "You never want to
have equipment standing idle due to poor sizing or performance limitations that create processing voids or delays," he says. "If you can have an automatic formulation
system that can load in five minutes so it can start blending, it will create more turns per hour than if you do
everything manually."
A heating or cooling step often requires a prescribed
amount of time, which can slow production. Langhorn
says if a bottleneck is a heating or cooling step, having
a device that has better heat transfer is one way of
minimizing that bottleneck. "If the bottleneck is a
batch cycle time and we can put more mixing intensity without damaging the product, then providing an
agitator that is more intense, maybe runs faster, and
provides better agitation would be one way of
speeding that," he says.

Staying consistent

Provided the product, temperatures and processes
remain consistent, the equipment performance should
be repeatable if maintained and operated consistently.
"Upon start-up, it's good to create a baseline for success
that documents the product, temps, processes, settings,
etc. Once the desired outcome is realized, the applicable people should be very protective of maintaining

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PET Food Processing - March 2019

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