When Hamburg, Germany-based Paradies Eis needed a better way to dose hot chocolate sauce into ice cream, it turned to peristaltic pumps from Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group (WMFTG). 

The company uses the latest 530 peristaltic pumps and tubing for the reliability that this delicate task requires. Further benefits include low pump maintenance requirements, high levels of accuracy and easy operation.

For nearly 20 years, the company, with about 20 employees, has produced almost 1 million liters of ice cream a year in more than 50 flavors. “Varieties with our acclaimed chocolate sauce or a chocolate coating are especially popular at the moment,” owner Axel Steen says.

The chocolate is about 140°F when added to the ice cream, and then it hardens again. 

Without valves, seals or moving parts in the fluid path, peristaltic pumps are ideal for operation in hygienic environments. Substances used with the pumps come into contact only with food-quality tubes. Moreover, the pump runs gently with extremely low shear forces, so product quality isn’t compromised.

Peristaltic pumps also offer high precision and reproducibility, which help maximize product consistency, an important consideration in ice cream manufacture. The machines have low maintenance requirements and allow rapid product changeovers.

Paradies Eis notes that peristaltic pumps vary in quality. “We were previously using a peristaltic pump from another manufacturer, which did not deliver the required precision on a consistent basis, and the insertion of the tube was complicated,” Steen says.

After a year of use, pump reliability and precision declined, prompting the company to seek an alternative supplier. The company found a solution in the Watson-Marlow 500 series, a compact range of cased peristaltic pumps for flow rates up to 3.5 ltrs./min.

“From the beginning, we noticed that the quality of the WMFTG pump is completely different to that of our previous pumps,” Steen says. “It runs quietly and evenly and performs reliably with a high degree of accuracy.”

When production expanded, the company added another pump to its third ice cream machine. Depending on the recipe, the pump delivers up to 70 liters of chocolate sauce per hour.

The 530 series pump is operated through an intuitive keypad with large buttons and a color display for easy operation with gloved hands in a production environment. The model has ±0.5 percent accuracy and precise speed control range of 2200:1.

The 530 pump is self-priming and capable of dry running, and its simple construction allows easy operation by varied personnel, including temporary workers. This is especially important in a sector such as ice cream, which can have spikes in demand during warm weather, necessitating temporary workers.

In order to ensure high reliability and maximum service life, the pump and tubing must match perfectly.

The Bioprene tubing used at Paradies Eis is USP Class VI and FDA regulation 21CFR 177:2600 for contact with aqueous food at operating temperatures up to about 175°F. The tubing has a long life, and stoppages for a tube change are rare.

“With our old peristaltic pump we had to change the pump head after just one year, but with our WMFTG pumps we have never had to change a single pump head,” Steen says. “Tubing merely needs to be changed from time to time, which is quick and easy. 

For more information, visit  www.wmftg.com