“To help pump ingredients such as coleslaw, chicken, mayonnaise, chickpeas, mustard spread and barbecue sauces, we rely on eight Certa pumps. These pumps are located on small trolleys so they can be easily moved around the large production floor and into different manufacturing halls,” explains Flensted maintenance manager, Martin Kristensen. Flensted Food Group, owned by Wersing Feinkost GmbH and located in mainland Denmark, produces a wide range of popular deli salad products.
Flensted has turned to Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group (WMFTG) to boost operational efficiency, choosing MasoSine Certa pumps, which have become the ‘de facto’ standard for handling these types of delicate ingredients.
There are many reasons why Flensted opted for MasoSine Certa pumps, one of them being that they are able to cope with varying viscosities – up to 8 million centipoise! The single rotor design of MasoSine pumps maintains constant volumetric displacement throughout the pumping cycle, providing a smooth and consistent flow profile without the pulsation spikes associated with rotary pumps.
Sine pumps also offer advantages over many other types of positive displacement pumps, such as piston pumps (which are prone to damaging solids), while air operated double diaphragm (AODD) pumps have a pumping action that frequently ‘splits’ bases such as mayonnaise. Ultimately, a trouble-free manufacturing process is “a must” at deli salad plants as downtime can have costly implications for both the end product and production.
The low shear and gentle action of a MasoSine Pump is unrivaled in its ability to preserve and maintain the integrity of solids, including diced vegetables, fruit, nuts, coleslaw and eggs, as well as bases like mayonnaise and dressings.
Further benefits of Certa pumps include up to 50% less energy consumption for the same flow in comparison with other pump types, and superior suction wherein cavitation is eliminated.
“We are very happy with our eight Certa pumps, which get the job done quickly and efficiently,” states Mr. Kristensen.
Deli salads at Flensted need to be manufactured in high volumes, and due to the nature of the ingredients, shelf life is often relatively short. Food plants using Certa pumps will immediately see increased yield and higher efficiency; in fact, flow rates can be adjusted to suit specific production requirements.
Cleanliness and ease of cleaning is another advantage of Certa pumps. Offering EHEDG Type EL Class I as well as EHEDG Type EL Aseptic Class I and 3A certification, the pumps provide full CIP (clean-in-place) capability. As well as minimizing downtime, this quick cleaning procedure also ensures that chemical and water use is reduced, which in turn means that less wastewater requires disposal and the production uptime is increased. So the entire system can carry on manufacturing instead of losing time with cleaning cycles.
“The ease of pump cleaning is outstanding,” concludes Mr Kristensen. “We have semi-CIP cleaning procedures in place, and the Certa pumps are always cleaned quickly, even after pumping very viscous mayonnaise at 20,000 cP.”
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