ViscoTec’s Dosing Pumps Under a Stress Test
Spice pastes, sauces or marinades – in liquid form or as paste-like preparations – often contain shredded ingredients such as herbs or vegetable pieces and even grains of salt. When mixed with the liquid product, these solid ingredients, the grains in particular, represent a special challenge for the hygienic filling process.
ViscoTec Pumpen- u. Dosiertechnik GmbH
The dosing components used must withstand high stress due to the abrasive or aggressive ingredients. The resulting friction on the wetted precision parts can lead to significant substance removal and consequently process uncertainties. Long work cycles in shift operation often result in less lifetime and shorter maintenance intervals.
Eccentric screw technology generates minimal shear
Viscotec’s endless piston principle, based on progressive cavity pump technology, withstands the high demands of abrasive materials. The dispensing equipment manufacturer offers solutions with only minimal wear. A concentration of the fillers is avoided by the constant and pulsation-free conveying of the solids-laden liquids. Under low pressures, the fluid is only subjected to minimum shear.
In a continuous running test at the manufacturer’s internal technical centre, the wear resistance of the stator material was tested in continual operation over the period of one week. The test medium was a spice paste, filled with herbs and grains of salt. The pasty liquid was fed to a dispenser 2VHD12-3D via a 600 ml cartridge and fed back from the pump outlet via a hose. A potential emergency situation with missing product supply was also simulated for half a day. Due to the dry running of the rotor-stator geometry, this case represents a worst case scenario with maximum stress on the components.
The geometry of the stator was measured and evaluated before and after the continuous running test by the quality assurance department. There were no changes either optically or dimensionally. Therefore, the dosing pump qualified for this application.
Even after intensifying the load by changing the number of revolutions, no signs of wear were visible. A highly satisfactory result in view of the extreme test conditions, including dry running.
Due to continuous material optimization and many years of experience in the handling of abrasive and solids-laden fluids, the ViscoTec dosing systems principle of endless piston technology can increase the service life of the components. Hygienic dosing of even the most difficult materials is possible!
