Pump becomes multifunctional link in apple juice concentrate production process

Processing apples into purée, juice or mash traditionally involves the use of expensive slicing and crushing machines. A food processing company questioned that investment and opted for an alternative solution: a hopper pump with integrated cutting unit. This also got the job done perfectly. In the production system for processing and transporting apple juice concentrate, the status of the pump was consequently immediately elevated from a mono to a multifunctional component.

What exactly is it about? The NETZSCH NEMO® BO/SO is a funnel pump with integrated cutting unit, specially developed for the food processing industry. The model is equipped with a hopper housing with rectangular inlet flange, a connecting rod with conveyor screw and a cutting unit. The latter consists of three rotating blades and a variable number of stationary blades that can be adjusted on a project-by-project basis to the size and consistency of the pieces to be cut.

"The big advantage of this pump is that cutting and conveying tasks can be combined in one process step," echoes the pump manufacturer. "Conveying solutions in the food processing industry usually focus on hygiene, cleanability and food compatibility, but if you can deliver multifunctionality on top of that, then you have a very nice product." So with the NEMO® pump, large solid parts such as pieces of fruit or vegetables are cut up and pumped for further processing in a quick and easy process. "The apples supplied for the production of apple juice concentrate, for example, only need to be cleaned and can then be fed into the pump in their entirety. Although, of course, they could just as easily be carrots or tomatoes." The hopper with cutting unit ensures optimum feeding into the pumping section. More specifically, on the way to the stator rotor unit, when they pass the compression chamber with the cutting unit on the connecting rod, the apples are chopped and sliced by, in this case, six knives. Afterwards, the mushy, coarse apple pulp is fed through the unit to a centrifuge.

In addition to the fixed cutting unit with rotating and stationary blades, the NEMO® pump can be optionally equipped with an additional cutting unit on the discharge flange. "This unit consists of a cutting plate and a rotating blade and determines the precise particle size of the solids in the medium as they exit the pump on the discharge side."