Wednesday, November 25, 2015

A Primer On Positive Displacement Sanitary Pump

By Marci Nielsen


Some of us will be thinking of going into the food manufacturing business and in view of this will need to be familiar with some of the industry terms and equipment used. In all likelihood, you may have come across the term positive displacement sanitary pump. This article will introduce you to what this piece of equipment is all about and why it is essential or used in some food manufacturing processes.

A pump is a machine or an implement that is installed to assist in the movement of slurries, food products and solutions that are in some form of needed processing. This is done in accordance with set criteria and standards of health and cleanliness which is set either by the company itself or an outside regulatory agency. In the United States, these regulatory agencies are the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.

Pumps in the food manufacturing arena consist of two types. The first being the centrifugal type, which uses centrifugal force to push fluids and liquids. The second type is the positive displacement type, which uses rotating lobes to create suction and move fluids and such through fixed chambers. Both are designed to eliminate bacterial growth while working.

PD, pumps, another name for these displacement pumps are not as widespread as centrifugal ones. They are however, fast gaining in popularity for special applications, which involve viscous liquids, or liquids that contain, some form of fragile solids. They are not capable of high flow rates as centrifuge mechanisms but they can produce much higher flow pressures.

As these kinds of mechanisms rely on rotating parts or lobes to create pressure based on volume, it produces less velocity when liquids are ejected into a discharge system. This is thus much more useful and needed when dealing with liquids that have some form of inert fragile solids within them.

Two types of PD pumps are currently in use in the food industry today. These are the rotary type and the reciprocating type. The former type of pump makes use of rotating parts to move liquid through. This is most useful for applications involving liquids with some form of fragile solids mixed in. Those applications needing an elimination of reverse flow processes are best serviced by the use of reciprocating type, which also has valves to create and eliminate vacuum pressure apart from moving lobes.

The main advantage of using a PD type over a centrifuge type is that it can provide a constant flow, even if the liquid is thick. Thus this is useful in breweries and dairy production facilities. Firms involved in the manufacturing of oils in the food market also benefit from the use of PD pumps. Other firms which produce molasses have also started to use these equipment in their overall production and processing lines.

Hopefully this short article has been of some use in enlightening the reader as regards PD pumps and their use in the food industry. It is by no means an exhaustive treatise on a somewhat technical subject but hopefully it has put some of the technical jargon into simple terms as much as possible to elicit understanding.




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