A United States Potato Processor discovered that a Ronningen-Petter brand self-cleaning filter can replace their costly, maintenance intensive vibrating screen unit!
In addition, they found that the filter improved the quality of their potato starch, while addressing several much needed safety issues. This permitted them to increase their profitability!
SITUATION
A food processing company was using a vibrating shaker-screen filter for their potato starch line. They had been having problems with the starch gelatinous particles clogging the screen, which would cause them to lose quality product within their discharged material. The clogged screen would also result in an overflow of valuable liquid flooding the area.
Raw materials cost began to skyrocket and the quality of the end product suffered due to the screens clogging. Employees were also subject to serious safety concerns due to the noisy, flooded work area.
The combination of all these factors negatively impacted the potato processors bottom line.
Costs: The need to re-filter the product several times during the process increased the cost of production. Not to mention the fact that valuable liquids were ending up on the production floor rather than in the end product.
Quality: The quality of the end product (starch) was lessened because the continuously clogged screen did not catch all the particles that needed to be filtered out.
Safety: Because of the vibrating screen clogging -- and as a result, overflow -- the excess fluid became a hazard to those who were passing by due to slippage on the wet surface. In addition, the loud noise made by the screen required that all employees nearby to wear ear protection.
Profits: The Company had to continuously monitor and adjust their potato processing line due to the vibrating screen unit; which was taking away much needed resources from other areas of production.
- It was necessary to re-filter the product several times which increased their employee overtime costs.
- They had to purchase additional raw materials because of the waste occurring on discharge.
- And finally, they needed to purchase additional employee safety materials due to the hazards created by the vibrating screen.
When all the issues were analyzed together they identified a significant decrease in their profitability.
Subsequently, it was determined that they needed the advice of a filtration expert. The company turned to Ask Filter Man at
Ronningen-Petter to determine if there was a better filtration solution that would address their concerns.
SOLUTION
Ronningen-Petter analyzed their potato starch line, and determined that a DCF-1600 self cleaning filter could replace the vibrating screen unit.
The DCF-1600 is a closed system that is not open to the atmosphere, relying on pump pressure (not gravity) to filter liquids.
This filter would tackle their excess product loss (higher cost and quality), safety concerns, and monitoring issues that resulted in lower profits.
Their headaches could be handled with one self cleaning filtration unit!
The DCF self-cleaning filter is based on a simple concept:
1) Cylindrical stainless steel housing contains a filter screen
2) Unfiltered liquids enter the inlet; solids are deposited on the interior surface of the filtration media
3) Filtered fluid exits at the outlet.
This enables the filter to be completely enclosed, and run automatically with minimal operator intervention.
The potato starch application details are as follows:
| Model: |
|
DCF-1600 Self Cleaning Filter |
| Liquid: |
|
Water with Starch Fibers and Gels |
| Retention: |
|
100 micron |
| Pressure: |
|
40 psi (2.7 bar) |
| Flow Rate: |
|
200 gpm max (757 l/min) |
| Viscosity: |
|
1 cps |
| Contaminant: |
|
Dirt, Gelatinous Starch |
The following potato starch process map shows where the Ronningen-Petter brand DCF self cleaning filter can be placed instead of a Vibrating filter screen:
RESULTS
Due to this new contained filtration system:
- Re-filtering of product was eliminated
- Overflow of liquids stopped
- Quality of the starch was vastly improved.
Most importantly, the return on investment for this enclosed
self-cleaning filter was less than six months.
So far, the Potato Processing facility has replaced vibrating filter units in six of their plants, and is looking to replace all of the vibrating filters in all of their plants.
-- by Ask Filter Man™
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