Platform for the food and beverage industry
Transportation solutions in the food processing industry tend to focus on hygiene, cleanability and food compatibility. However, if you can also deliver multifunctionality on top of that, you're quickly one step ahead. Such was the experience of a food processing company when it chose the NETZCH NEMO® BO/SO hopper pump with integrated cutting unit as part of its production system for processing and conveying apple juice concentrate.
The NEMO® pump with hopper and integrated cutting unit was specially developed for the food processing industry, with the great advantage that the cutting and conveying tasks can be combined in one process step. Indeed, large solid parts such as pieces of fruit or vegetables can be cut and pumped for further processing in a quick and easy process.
Traditionally, expensive cutting and crushing machines are used to process apples. In the plant in question, however, thanks to the NEMO® pump, this investment could be omitted. The apples supplied for the production of the apple juice concentrate only need to be cleaned. They are then fed whole into the pump, where they are chopped by six blades and then the mushy, coarse apple pulp is fed through the unit to a centrifuge. For this double task, the pump model is equipped with a hopper housing with rectangular inlet flange, a connecting rod with conveyor screw and a cutting unit.
More specifically, it is the hopper with cutting unit that ensures an optimal supply to the pumping section, whether it is whole apples, carrots or tomatoes. They are cut directly on their way to the stator rotor unit, when they pass the compression chamber with the cutting unit on the connecting rod. "The cutting unit consists of three rotating blades and a variable number of stationary blades that can be adapted to the size and consistency of the pieces to be cut," explains Joaquim de Matos, managing director for Benelux. Optionally, the pump can even be equipped with an additional cutting unit on the press flange. "This unit consists of a cutting plate and a rotating blade. When applied, it therefore determines the particle size of the solids in the medium with which the transported material leaves the pump on the discharge side."
