Fruit Seeds No Problem For Peristaltic Pump
Even innocuous fruit seeds can damage the workings of certain pump types. Indeed they were the downfall of a rotary lobe pump installed at food processor Pakkasmarja Oy in Finland, a producer of fruit sorbets and purees.
All products are made from fresh ingredients but the seeds in the fruit pulp constantly wore the pump’s lobes, ultimately causing its failure. Its replacement by a British made peristaltic hose pump not only restored productivity but also provided greater production flexibility.
The Verderflex VF32 peristaltic hose pump was ideal for this application from a number of standpoints: It can pump liquids including hard or abrasive solids in suspension by passing a rotating shoe along a specially designed hose, compressing it completely until on recovery, a strong vacuum is produced giving the pump a powerful self priming capability.
The pumped product is completely contained within the hose without coming into contact with any other part of the pump and as the pump has no valves to clog or moving parts to wear out then the Verderflex VF32 provides Pakkasmarja Oy with a pump that can transfer such viscous fluids without compromising production line efficiency or plant reliability.
A combination of a food-grade NBR hose and hygienic SMS flanges provided a hygienic pumping solution. This Verderflex VF32 has its speed controlled by a variable frequency drive, adding greater control to the production process varying the delivered flow between 20 and 2,000 l/hr.
Verderflex was also able to meet the customer’s request for the pump to be dual use by mounting the pump on a trolley, so Pakkasmarja Oy can move it from the production line to the packaging area to feed a loading hopper when it is not being used for pumping fruit pulp.
The first Verderflex VF32 has been such a success that Pakkasmarja Oy have just ordered a second VF32 pump.
Source: Verder Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG
