Valve for Liquid Food Media

Industrial Food Technology System

An Original Equipment Manufacturer providing R&D equipment to the food industry have provided a pneumatic Pinch Valve from AKO UK onto one of their flexible, miniature-scale processing systems which makes it ideal for new liquid food product development. The pinch valve replaces the standard sprung backpressure valve when processing with particulate-containing products, and requires a compressed air supply to operate.

The system has an integral pressurised hot water generator and requires only electricity and cooling water to operate. A progressive cavity feed pump ensures that flow rates are independent of viscosity/backpressure changes and allow a maximum operating pressure of 10 bar.

Some of the liquid food media with suspended solids that this system handles are:

• Baby foods
• Beer
• Beverages
• Condiments
• Confectionery
• Milk
• Cream
• Ice-cream
• Yoghurt
• Desserts and puddings
• Fruit and vegetable purées
• Fruit juices and cordials
• Sauces and soups
• Gravies
• Gelatine products
• Pet food
• Health and nutritional products
• Culture media
• Protein drinks
• Pharmaceuticals

Clean in Place (CIP) & Sterilisation (SIP)

Cleaning is in place (CIP) using the feed pump in high flow rate mode and there is a centrifugal pump CIP option which generates very high cleaning velocities to deal with products that are particularly difficult to clean.
Sterilisation (SIP) of the system is controlled from the touchscreen. System sterilization time and temperature are defined and key temperature sensors are monitored to ensure the entire system satisfactorily completes the SIP cycle.

The system is well instrumented for both process and services, including the Pinch Valve being CIP & SIP capable.

Pinch Valve used within this application: VMC10.06K.50TA.50

VMC model, air operated, stainless steel body, stainless steel tri-clamp ends, internal rubber sleeve.

Valve for Liquid Food Application Details

There are various liquid food products with a temperature ranging from 5-90°C passing through the valve for food at a line pressure of between 1-4 bar in this application. The valve is positioned at the end of the system, and is normally open.

Allowing the handling of liquids with solid particles, the Pinch Valve for liquid food is in a process line that may be sterilised. In this case it can see temperatures of up to 130°C.

Customer Experience & Satisfaction

The OEM who built this food processing machine wanted a reliable valve that could handle liquids with suspended solids. The company have been using AKO UK Pinch Valves for 10 years and are happy with the products.

The rubber sleeve inside the pinch valve for liquid food is replaced yearly, not because of failures, but during every service. A pressure regulator is also used on this system with the pinch valve.