This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
This Website Uses Cookies
By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More
This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
Food Engineering logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Food Engineering logo
  • Home
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Digital Edition
    • Archives
  • Exclusives
    • Fabulous Food Plants
    • Plant Construction Survey
    • Plant of the Year
    • Sustainable Plant of the Year
    • State of Food Manufacturing
    • Top 100 Food & Beverage Companies
    • Web Exclusives
  • Topics
    • Latest Headlines
    • Automation
    • Cannabis
    • Case Studies/Field Reports
    • Columns
    • Dry Processing
    • Food Safety
    • Innovation
    • Packaging
    • Processing
    • Sustainability
    • Tech Update
  • News
    • Manufacturing News
    • New Products
    • People & Industry News
    • Plant Openings
    • Recalls
    • Regulatory Watch
  • Food Master
  • Resources
    • Classified Ads
    • Custom Content & Marketing Services
    • FE Store
    • Government Links
    • Industry Associations
    • Market Research
    • White Papers
    • Tech Flash E-newsletter
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Food Automation & Manufacturing Conference & Expo
  • Multimedia
    • Interactive Spotlights
    • Videos
    • Photo Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • eBooks
    • Food Plant of the Future
    • Webinars
    • Food Engineering's Youtube
  • Contact
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
  • Subscribe
Home » Reliable, efficient vacuum supply for quality cheesemaker
Case Studies & Field Reports
Field Reports

Reliable, efficient vacuum supply for quality cheesemaker

Cheddar production plant spends less on energy and maintenance costs after installing claw vacuum pumps.

Mink vacuum pumps

Mink vacuum pumps are installed in a central pump room, where they provide vacuum for the curd conveying system and maintain the vacuum in the cheese tower.

Energy-efficient pumps

The energy-efficient pumps supply seven cheese towers with vacuum. Source: Busch.

Mink vacuum pumps
Energy-efficient pumps
August 17, 2015
KEYWORDS pumps
Reprints
No Comments

Glanbia Nutritionals in Ireland operates one of the world’s most modern production facilities, manufacturing high-quality, matured cheddar cheese. Glanbia Nutritionals is part of the Glanbia Group, Ireland’s largest manufacturer of milk products and a global supplier to producers of foodstuffs and baby food.

At the Ballyragget production facility, curds undergo a process known as “cheddaring.” After pasteurization and the addition of rennet, the curd runs through a sealed system that separates the whey and adds salt to the remaining curd.

In 2011, seven cheese towers were installed in the fully automated cheddaring plant. Vacuum conveying lines transport the curd and residual milk from the plant to the cheese towers. An air current carries the curd to the top of a 10m-tall cheese tower, into which it is dropped.

The curd mass is compressed by its own weight, forming a column in the tower. A vacuum is maintained to remove residual milk and air that may have been included in the compression process. The cheese is cut into 20kg blocks, packed and weighed in a block chamber at the base of the tower.

In the originally installed vacuum system, conventional rotary lobe vacuum pumps were used to transport the curd and compress it into blocks. However, this system could only pump down to 500 mbar (375 torr). Additionally, the pumps were equipped with frequency controlled motors, and the vacuum level could not be improved by increasing the speed due to technical limitations. The system used a total of nine pumps, each requiring 15kW of electricity.

Over a year ago, Glanbia Plant Operations Manager Vincent Cleere replaced this system with Busch Mink claw vacuum pumps, which reach a vacuum down to 200 mbar (150 torr). The pump motors have individual frequency control, enabling the vacuum level to be adjusted to suit the process. The vacuum in the cheese towers is precisely controlled to maintain constant curd density, improving product quality and packaging consistency by reducing block weight variation. The new pumps also consume less power than the rotary lobe vacuum pumps, with each requiring only 9kW of electricity while running at 50Hz.

“The Mink claw vacuum pumps have reduced our energy requirements for vacuum generation by 54kW per hour,” says Cleere. Because the plant operates 18 hours per day, seven days a week and 45 weeks a year, the energy cost savings alone pay for the investment.

Since the installation of the Mink claw vacuum pumps, the plant has not experienced any service interruptions or technical problems. In addition, Cleere says the maintenance requirements are minimal, with the filters requiring cleaning just once a week. Adhering to the Busch recommendation of a gear oil change every 20,000 operating hours, the Glanbia site will be serviced roughly every five years.

The pumps work under a dry and contact-free principle, requiring no fluids for compression and keeping the internal moving parts away from each other.


For more information: Uli Merkle, 757-463-7800, marketing@buschusa.com, www.buschusa.com.

subscribe to Food Engineering

Related Articles

Ice Cream Maker Updates Pumps for Precision Dosing of Chocolate Sauce

Brewery saves 5,000 gallons of water per day with new pump

Brewery’s pump doesn't need valves

Sweetener manufacturer solves recurring pump repair problem

You must login or register in order to post a comment.

Report Abusive Comment

Subscribe For Free!
  • Print & Digital Edition Subscriptions
  • eNewsletter
  • Online Registration
  • Subscription Customer Service

More Videos

Popular Stories

North Carolina Food Innovation Lab

North Carolina Food Innovation Lab takes aim at food production of the future

sustainable packaging

Packaging industry pumps up R&D to keep pace with green goals

BKON's RAIN technology

RAIN uses vacuum cycles for extraction to occur at the deepest layers of coffee

Plant Opening

Plant Openings & Expansions: November 2019

date labels

Much food waste comes from misinterpretation on product date labels

Food Master 2020

Events

December 11, 2019

7 Things You’re Likely Missing to Win with Water Tracking

Water is one of the most critical resources in your manufacturing process—as an ingredient, for cleaning and as waste. Did you know you may be missing areas to monitor that could help your bottom line? Find out how some simple additions to what you’re monitoring can cut downtime, boost efficiency and reduce waste. Some extra analysis makes a huge difference in your water savings!
April 26, 2020

Food Automation & Manufacturing Conference and Expo

FA&M logoFood Engineering's Food Automation & Manufacturing Conference and Expo (FA&M) is a 2 ½ day event that brings food and beverage processors and suppliers together to gain valuable information on the latest trends and technologies in manufacturing, automation, sustainability and food safety.

View All Submit An Event

Poll

Severe Weather and the Supply Chain

How will this year’s severe spring weather affect your supply chain?
View Results Poll Archive

Products

Packaging Research in Food Product Design and Development

Packaging Research in Food Product Design and Development

Packaging Research in Food Product Design and Development is the first book to comprehensively address the issues of graphics design and visual concepts, from a systematic, scientific viewpoint, yet with business applications in mind.

See More Products

2019 Top 100 Food & Beverage Companies

Food Engineering

FE November 2019 cover

2019 November

In the November 2019 issue of Food Engineering, learn about the new ways food and beverage processors are reducing their energy footprints.
View More Create Account
  • Resources
    • Food & Beverage Brands
    • List Rental
    • Survey And Sample
  • Want More
    • Connect
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright ©2019. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing