Poultry Fat and Molasses Pump for Animal Food Coating
Animal food comes in both dry and wet forms, flavour and nutrients are added to the dry product to make it more palatable and easier to digest. We were approached by a pet food producer that was having difficulty with their existing pumps for coating dry pet food bars with molasses and poultry fat across various process lines.
To ease the manufacturing process, they require the fat and molasses to be pumped at high temperatures, typically up to 80°C. However, consistently pumping at this temperature was causing their gear pumps to fail and need replacement every six months on average. Gear pumps require a minimum viscosity level to maintain efficiency, reduce slippage and ultimately protect the gears from premature wear. Heating the fat and molasses to such a high temperature reduces the viscosity considerably and this was causing damage to the existing units and leading to excessive downtime and cost.
The various process lines require flow rates ranging from 80 L/hr up to 400 L/hr all while maintaining a consistent pressure of 4 bar. It is essential for them that the poultry fat and molasses pump is reliable and easy to maintain as production downtime can lead to considerable losses in revenue and high costs. We specified our AMP22 peristaltic pump for this as it ticks all the boxes in terms of their requirements. We installed a variable speed drive with forced air cooling to the motor to allow simple control over the flow rate while ensuring the motor does not overheat when operating at low frequencies for large amounts of time.
Our peristaltic pumps can handle both thin and thick liquids without losing efficiency, they can dry run indefinitely and maintain a consistent pressure regardless of the flow rate required. Due to the forced air cooling, the AMP22 can operate at flow rates as low as 4 L/hr. These are the simplest pumps to maintain as the only wearing part is the internal rubber hose, changing the hose is a quick process and the only parts required to be kept in stock are the hose and some lubricant grease. This reduces their stocking costs and downtime considerably, a factor that was causing them a lot of pain up to this point.
We installed an NBR-A food grade hose for this application with stainless steel BSP connections, however we can supply these units with hygienic connections such as tri-clamp if required. Peristaltic pumps produce a pulsating flow by nature, we recommended a pulsation dampener for this project as it ensures a smooth and consistent flow rate optimising the coating process.
