Bakery ingredients manufacturer solves pumping issue

Sonneveld, a manufacturer of bakery ingredients in The Netherlands, has turned to Certa Sine pump technology from Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group (WMFTG) to solve its pumping issue.

One of the company’s bakery ingredients is a tomato-based, ready-made marinade called Sonextra Pomodori. The ingredient is used to reprocess stale bread into a savoury snack (or bread chip). When transferring the viscous marinade with the previously used lobe pump, the company encountered problems such as damage to product integrity and blockages.

“Some of our Sonextra marinades contain fresh herbs and have a greasy-type consistency based on natural fats, which proved challenging for our lobe pump. The lobe pump often crushed the fresh herbs excessively and would regularly block, resulting in a suboptimal product and significant downtime,” said John de Vos, Maintenance Engineer at Sonneveld.

Sonneveld required the pump to transfer marinade between IBC containers and 5 L steel canisters.

“Each time the lobe pump blocked we lost a lot of production as, in order to get it running again, we had to take it apart, which was difficult and time-consuming. This meant that both the quality of the end product and downtime due to maintenance were not at the expected levels.”

The Certa Sine pumps, which are suitable for use with viscous products, were trialled as a solution to their pumps issue at the facility.

“We are always very cautious about implementing changes to our production processes, but the pump’s features were of great interest, and it seemed a very good match for some of our products,” de Vos said.

After favourable trials, Sonneveld decided to replace its lobe pump with the Certa pump for its Sonextra marinades. The pump has been operational for three years, pumping product with viscosity up to 8000 cP (containing particulates up to 7 mm in size) at rates of up to 5000 L/h (at 4 bar). The pumps’ success led to Sonneveld installing six pumps onsite, with a seventh on order.

“Right from the start the pump excelled on almost all levels. Most important was the impact on product quality. Using the Certa pump significantly improved the quality of the end product as the fresh herbs were pumped gently throughout the process. This resulted in a much more aesthetically pleasing product compared with using the lobe pump,” de Vos said.

Maintenance at food manufacturers is vital for many reasons, especially hygiene. The smooth internal surface of the Certa pumps prevents product remaining inside, keeping them clean. “If we want to use the pump for another product, a simple CIP cleaning routine suffices. We rinse the pump with hot water and drain it, then we can start right away with the next product,” de Vos said.

Product specialist Georges Paans is also very satisfied with the Sine pump technology: “With this pump the fresh herbs in our marinades remain intact and the pump does not get blocked. The pump also transfers less heat into the production process, which means less crystallisation of the marinade, thus improving its consistency.”

Although pump quality was a key factor in Sonneveld’s decision to use Watson-Marlow pumps, the level of service and commitment was deemed equally important. This combination has led the company to install a number of additional Certa Sine pumps.

“The Certa pumps are perfect for us, especially when pumping fats and releasing agents, and the excellent customer service has been an important factor in our decision to continue using Watson-Marlow,” de Vos concluded.

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