How to Move a Viscous Fluid in a Production Line While Minimizing Product Loss
Every manufacturing operation presents plant designers with unique challenges that require system customization while simultaneously maximizing results to achieve a tailored, high-performance system.
Automating the distribution of ingredients directly into the production line lays the groundwork for increasing productivity in food manufacturing and standardizing processes, ensuring consistent product quality and characteristics.
The requirements for a food industry plant include:
- Suitability for food contact.
- The ability to be sanitized periodically to maintain hygiene standards in compliance with food safety regulations.
- Reduced periodic maintenance.
- Minimal product waste.
- Consistent and monitorable process parameters.
How to Meet These Needs?
Automating the Production Process in the Stuffed Pizza Sector
Let’s take the example of a stuffed pizza production company that, in 2014, aimed to automate the transfer of ingredients from raw material storage to the topping process.
Granzotto tackled this challenge by developing a customized system that enabled the transfer of tomato mixtures, consisting of both puree and diced tomatoes, from refrigerated storage to the pizza preparation line.
The plant features five integrated production lines with a productivity of over 60,000 pizzas per day. When designing the distribution system, it is essential to ensure that the materials of the components in direct contact with the acidic product (pH below 4.5) are suitable. These materials must not cause global or specific migrations during repeated use and must prevent corrosion.
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The Solution
The AISI 316 stainless steel used in Granzotto’s lines is specifically selected to ensure maximum safety and resistance.
Another critical factor is preventing the heating of food during the process. This is addressed by using insulated piping systems, which prevent heating while also ensuring controlled residence times for the product in the line.
To maximize efficiency and recover residual product, the system was integrated with a G-RECO DN50 system, consisting of a launch station and a receiving station.
At the end of production, or during product changeovers (e.g., switching from conventional to organic products), the PIG system recovers all residual product in the line and directs it back to refrigerated raw material storage.
In this way, 98% of the product is recovered directly from the line, ensuring maximum hygiene during the process: the product does not need to be collected downstream and reintroduced into storage. Instead, it is returned upstream, avoiding product exposure to the environment and minimizing the risk of environmental contamination.
The hygienic and sanitary aspect of the system is a fundamental prerequisite, ensured by leveraging the same PIG system (G-RECO). This system is paired with a cleaning setup, allowing tailored cleaning cycles of the line after the product recovery phase.
Since the choice of cleaning agent is closely related to the type of residue to be removed, a CIP (clean-in-place) washing system with 30% sodium hydroxide was developed for this case study, featuring two tanks for ring washing.
This solution also optimizes cleaning times: organic residues are minimized, leading to faster cleaning cycles and a reduction in the amount of chemical agents used. The chemicals can also be used in more diluted concentrations.
The stainless steel ensures resistance to the aggressive chemical agents commonly used for sanitation in the food industry.
Greater productivity, coupled with maximum recovery of waste residues and reduced use of chemical agents for sanitation, are the results achievable with well-designed and optimized systems. These systems ensure high levels of food safety, economic sustainability, and environmental sustainability.
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