Raw Milk

Situation

A large producer of cream cheese and yogurt products used traditional centrifugal pumps on their raw milk storage tanks with single mechanical seals. Every 4-6 weeks the seals on the pumps would need to be replaced due to abrasive wear.

Solution

The SPX EcoPure pump was placed in the pasteurization process to feed the balancing tank. The EcoPure pump’s magnetic coupling eliminated the rotating seals in the process that would be worn down by the product that would dry, crystalize and become abrasive causing the seals to wear or break. Since the EcoPure pump does not contain any rotating mechanical seals, the pump eliminated the build-up of “Milk Stone” (dried proteins) that would form on the seals and eventually cause them to leak.

Result

The results have been a significant improvement in seal life with no required repairs in over 9 months of production. The customer benefited from not only the reduction in the cost of seal repair parts, but also reduced maintenance and improved plant up-time by increasing the time between repairs.The pump has 3-A approval and is designed in accordance with EHEDG standards. To validate the clean-ability of the EcoPure, the processor performed regularly-scheduled swab tests after running their CIP process. Results showed that the pump passed all swab tests without any modification to their CIP process.