The Swiss subsidiary of Dutch company DSM Nutritional Products AG uses the spray drying technique when producing vitamin and carotenoid powders for the pharmaceutical and meals industries. The process uses pump know-how to convey various emulsions into a twig tower, the place they are dried into powder. But the feed and booster pump that was being used proved to be an uncertainty factor as a result of the diaphragm required for the pumping process tended to tear when the pump was began up. Generally, such manufacturing interruptions could be corrected by way of immediate maintenance and restore work.
However, it is extremely expensive to switch a diaphragm or an entire system. DSM was in search of another and at last made a discover when they talked to the pump specialists at Lewa Nikkiso Switzerland, who beneficial a Lewa triplex process diaphragm pump for the spray tower utility. The drive unit includes a protected start-up mode that keeps the diaphragm situated within the neutral position, and steady regulation using an integrated monitoring system. Since the hermetically tight pumps are electropolished and CIP-approved, it’s simple to fulfill the food industry’s stringent hygienic provisions.
a hundred PERCENT INTEGRATION
“Pump expertise plays a central role in drying oil-in-water emulsions for the meals and pharmaceutical industries. These emulsions contain substances such as vitamins, carotenoids, or polyunsaturated fatty acids as active elements,” explains Natalie Ibald, plant supervisor of formulations at DSM Nutritional Products AG. “As part of the method chain, each pump is 100% built-in into the closed plant system. The pumps are used for conveying the mixtures into the spray tower.”
With the previous system, the chance of unforeseen interruptions to this course of couldn’t be dominated out. As a result, the totally different emulsions could not be processed additional. In other phrases, it was not attainable to dry them into powder. The pump diaphragm was the rationale: it was often too sensitive to face up to the stress placed on it when beginning up the pump and would rupture. Replacing the diaphragm reduced the system’s service life and generally meant that trouble-free operation could not be guaranteed.
FINDING THE RIGHT PARTNER
In the course of searching for a reliable alternative, DSM obtained in contact with the Swiss subsidiary of pump producer Lewa.
“We have been already conversant in Lewa Nikkiso Switzerland as a supplier of sturdy systems with lengthy service lives within the SFP sector. To ensure trouble-free spray drying, we thought it would be good to hitch forces with the specialists from Lewa and come up with a design to unravel the technical problems,” says Ibald.
DSM is committed to continually enhancing its processes and investing in expertise. This dedication, together with prior expertise with the brief service lives of the earlier pumps, led DSM to position special focus on reliable function and a robust design during the challenge planning part. The list of requirements additionally included a considerable variety of stringent hygienic provisions that needed to be fulfilled.
“Certain foods have provisions concerning microbiological purity which may be many occasions more stringent than these for producing different food products,” explains Ibald. “This meant that the model new feed and booster pump needed to meet these more challenging circumstances and each sort of contamination had to be ruled out to provide the widest possible variety of merchandise on the system.”
ROYAL DSM: PARTNER PROFILE
Royal DSM is a worldwide science-oriented firm that’s particularly lively in the areas of nutrition, well being, and sustainable residing. DSM’s mission is to improve the lives of all. Products and options from DSM handle a number of the world’s largest challenges while simultaneously creating financial, environmental, and societal value for all its stakeholders—including prospects, workers, shareholders, and society at massive.
DSM delivers progressive options for the diet, animal vitamin, private care and aromatics, medical products, environmentally friendly merchandise and purposes, in addition to new mobility and interconnectivity.
DSM and its affiliated firms employ more than 23,000 folks and generate an annual web turnover of roughly 10 billion euros. The company was founded in 1902 and is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam stock trade.
For extra data, go to www.dsm.com.
GUARANTEED SAFE START-UP OPERATION
After a visit at the firm premises to assume about the spatial and technical parameters, Lewa Nikkiso Switzerland really helpful a kind G3F triplex process diaphragm pump for the spray tower software. This pump contains a utterly safe start-up operation, since a spring constantly holds the built-in sandwich diaphragm positioned in a neutral position.
This protects the diaphragm against incorrect positioning and prevents it from being damaged while the pump is starting up, increasing system availability considerably. And the Lewa triplex is controlled using a strain reduction valve that’s installed in the hydraulic part and may be configured for the particular situation. Therefore, the pump could be tailored to completely different operational conditions to have the ability to stop any overloads that will arise. This ensures that the unit has a long service life and clean regular operation for the whole system.
THE POWER OF DESIGN
In addition to the pressure aid valve and the spring control, the design of the diaphragm additionally plays an necessary function in ensuring dependable pump operation. The patented sandwich diaphragm consists of two separate PTFE diaphragms which are extremely long-lasting. They are related to one another through positive interlocking through the discharge stroke and mechanical force-fitting through the suction stroke.
This makes the pump hermetically tight and successfully prevents external contamination. As an additional safety feature, the DPS monitoring system from Lewa constantly screens the situation of the diaphragm. The monitoring unit promptly displays any injury to the gadget that leads to increased pressure within the diaphragm area.
This makes it attainable to carry out preventive maintenance and repair work before the diaphragm even begins to rupture and probably contaminates the pumped fluid. Thus, it is normally unnecessary to modify the pump off immediately, which implies that neither the pumping process nor spray drying are negatively impacted to a big extent. If harm to a diaphragm is detected, manufacturing can proceed without any issues up to a deliberate maintenance stop. ขนาดpressuregauge can then be replaced rapidly and simply by releasing the cassette for the assembly.
ASEPTIC, FDA-COMPLIANT OPERATION
The hermetically tight design of the process diaphragm pump does more than just ensure dependable continuous operation. It can also be a central element for fulfilling the stringent hygiene provisions that the spray tower utility is subject to. The Lewa triplex maintains a hermetically tight area without dynamic seals, guaranteeing completely clean and aseptic manufacturing circumstances. All pump heads that come into contact with the product are also electropolished, which makes it attainable to ensure FDA-compliant pump operation.
Because the pump may be cleaned in place (CIP) utilizing completely different alkaline and acidic agents and with out prior dismantling, it is possible to fulfill the special requirements for child meals as nicely. The provisions for baby meals are 1,000 instances more stringent than these for other products within the food sector. Thanks to the hermetically tight design, electropolishing, and CIP cleansing, we have been in a place to rule out any contamination of the pumped medium and clearly meet the required hygiene standard.
QUICK RESPONSE TIMES AND WELL-FOUNDED EXPERTISE
The first quote was received in June of 2018 and in September of the identical year, DSM Nutritional Products AG positioned an order for the triplex process diaphragm pump. In operation since April 2019, the pump has turn out to be an indispensable a part of production on the plant in Sisseln.
“In every phase of the venture, Lewa Nikkiso Switzerland demonstrated fast response times and well-founded expertise, which made a key contribution to implementing the venture efficiently,” says Ibald. “Our specifications with regard to quality, robustness, and hygiene had been adopted to the letter in this project. As a result, our production has turn out to be noticeably more efficient and dependable.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Lewa develops technologies and offers solutions for the huge array of purposes amongst its clients. Its merchandise are used primarily within the oil and fuel business, in fuel odorization, in refineries and petrochemicals, in addition to in the production of plastics, detergents, and cleaners. Additional application areas embrace the chemical industry, cosmetics business, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, food and beverage industry, and power utilities. For more info, visit www.lewa.com.
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