Pump Fruit Puree With A Diaphragm Pump

Sunjuice Ltd, part of the Jamaica Producers Group, is the European market leader in freshly squeezed juices, crushes and smoothies. Essential to their success has been the importance of supplying the freshest and finest fruit juice on the market.

The 2" Good Food Air-Operated Double-Diaphragm Pump in 316 Stainless Steel from FPL transfers fruit juices and smoothies from the mixing vessels to the filling lines some 70 metres away. At a flowrate of 25 l/min and a viscosity up to 8,000 cp. at a temperature of 2ºC, the pumps have a flooded suction and discharge the products through a 1½" pipe 5 metres vertical and 70 metres horizontally, with at least 15 - 90º bends.

Following the success of the Good Food pump, a Slimline Ultraclean FDA approved AODP was then purchased to handle fruit purees such as banana, apricot and apple. Used in their product development area to explore different packaging scenarios, the 1½" pump sucks the purees from drums or pallecons and pumps at a rate of 50 l/min to a mixing vessel.

Hygiene is critical, so the new Slimline Ultraclean hygienic diaphragm pumps are ideally suited because they are machined from solid 316 Stainless Steel, with no welds and designed to be self draining, which reduces product residue by 70%. They have no ball valve seats, resulting in a more hygienic Crevice-fee design.

Both pumps are subject to CIP, firstly with a cold water rinse, followed by a 1-% hot caustic solution, then a cold water rinse and finally a sterilant flush. The Flotronic AODP is unique in that it can withstand up to 7 bar on the inlet from an external CIP rig without the need to bypass the pumps. Swabs are then taken to ensure the system meets their strict hygiene requirements.

Kevin Feehan – engineering manager comments "We like the flexibility and the low shear pumping action of the Flotronic pumps, since we use them on a variety of products. The fact that they are easy to clean is important and they have been very low maintenance and very easy to install."

PROCESS DETAILS

• Fruit Purees, ie banana, apricot, apple, tomato.
• Flooded Suction/1 m Lift
• Discharge over 75 metres
• Temperature 2 C
• Viscosity to 8,000 cp
• Flowrate 25-50 l/min

PUMP DETAILS

• 2" Good Food Pump & 1½" Slimline in 316 Stainless Steel
• PTFE diaphragms and ball valves
• RJT connections