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A world-class wheat processing facility has installed Endress+Hauser instrumentation and pushed plant performance levels to the optimum and helped meet the stringent demands of the client's Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system.
Individual mixes of corn grits, potato or semolina are prepared from bulk and bagged raw materials which arrive at the plant. Silos filled pneumatically with floury, dusty products are in danger of over-pressurisation with the possible risk of splitting the silo sides. The new Levelflex M guide radar from Endress+Hauser, used in conjunction with a Cerabar M food-grade pressure sensor, will monitor bin levels to 34.7 meters and keep pressure within silo specifications. It will also close down filling systems and shut valves if dangerous levels are achieved - even during filling.
Once the snack leaves the washers, peelers and extruders, it is blown along flexible pipes into storage hoppers, where it is fed into drying ovens. Accurate temperature zone control in the dryers is achieved using a series of temperature sensors, outputted to a data secure Memograph S visual data manager. The Memograph S is ideally suited to the food industry as it is compliant to FDA requirements in 21 CFR part 1.1.
The temperature and feed rate data can be used to determine the best drying times for each product type to prevent over-cooking. From the triple deck ovens, the snacks go into the flavour dosing system, which for many crackers, chips or corn puffs is vegetable oil slum. The power flavours are either pre-weighted or continuously weighed and mixed with a fixed volume of oil and pumped under pressure to the flavour drums. Endress+Hauser's stainless steel Proline Promass 80 Coriolis mass flow meters will ratio the raw oil and dose the slurries in the product tumblers accurately from 2.27 kg/second to 222 kg/second, at flow rates up to 10 metres/second at temperatures of up to 200°C. Flavour mixing is critical at this stage - the correct mix ensures the best possible taste of the final product. Endress+Hauser's Promass flow meter provides mass and volume dose control as well as density and temperature functions at this crucial point in the process.
The excess hot slurry flows out of the tumblers into reservoirs and waste tanks for removal and recycling. Endress+Hauser's Liquiphant M vibrating fork point level switches are immune to oily product build-up and can prevent any messy and costly overflows and spills. From the flavour drums, the product goes straight up a bucket elevator and onto the distribution system to feed the multi-head weighers and packers, before final distribution to the stores and supermarkets.
Endress+Hauser has the widest range of level, pressure, flow, temperature and analytical instrumentation for the food industry - all designed to meet FDA, 3-A and EHEDG standards. The company's food industry sensors and transmitters are manufactured in stainless steel to ensure the maximum food safety and are available with a variety of sanitary process connections for added flexibility.
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