Tuesday, December 8, 2015

By Marci Nielsen


You may be going into the food manufacturing business soon and thus you will need to know some of the needed equipment needed in such a business. And in your proposed venture you may have come across the term positive displacement sanitary pump. Read on in this article to find out what kind of equipment this is and how it works and is essential for your food production needs.

A pump is a machine or an implement that is installed to assist in the movement of slurries, food products and solutions that are in some form of needed processing. This is done in accordance with set criteria and standards of health and cleanliness which is set either by the company itself or an outside regulatory agency. In the United States, these regulatory agencies are the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.

Food processing sanitary pumps come in two types. One is a centrifugal type pump, which uses centrifugal force to pump fluids or mush right along, and the other is a positive displacement pump. The latter makes uses suction via rotating lobes in different fixed chambers. Either way, both are designed to prevent bacterial growth in the process.

Positive displacement pumps are sometimes called PD pumps and are fast gaining in popularity when talking about special applications involving thick liquids or liquids with fragile solid materials. Although they cannot produce a high flow rate like centrifugal pumps, they can produce much greater pressure.

These pumps rely on pressure to move liquids through to a discharge system. The pressure is slowly built up by rotating lobes or parts pushing liquid into an enclosed and vacuum sealed chamber. The release velocity of this liquid is much slower than a centrifugal setup and thus ideal for liquids that have some form of fragile solids mixed in.

Two types of PD pumps are currently in use in the food industry today. These are the rotary type and the reciprocating type. The former type of pump makes use of rotating parts to move liquid through. This is most useful for applications involving liquids with some form of fragile solids mixed in. Those applications needing an elimination of reverse flow processes are best serviced by the use of reciprocating type, which also has valves to create and eliminate vacuum pressure apart from moving lobes.

The sole advantage of the PD type of mechanism is that it can provide a constant flow of liquid within the range of medium to high pressure applications. This is particularly important in breweries and dairy production facilities which deal a lot with viscous liquids. Other viscous fluid applications best serviced by PD type mechanisms are found in firms that produces vegetable oils, molasses and such.

Thus this short article has provided a primer for you regarding this kind of pump that is widely used in the food manufacturing and processing sector. This article is in no means exhaustive but it is hoped that it has contained enough information to enlighten the uninitiated in the ways of pumps and pump process as used in food processing.




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