Safe Conveying of Instant Milk Granules with Piab’s piFLOW®p Vacuum Conveyor

Facing continuous quality problems during the transport of granules of instant milk within its process line, Polmlek Raciaz, a member of the Polmlek Group – Polands largest 100 percent Polish-owned dairy company, needed to modernize its system. The blower, screw and rotary valve sed for this process did not render the expected result and led to regular product damage and waste.

“Since we already have two Piab vacuum conveyors in use at other stations and considering our satisfaction with the service experienced so far by Piab’s Polish entity, we decided to replace the old system by Piab’s premium product, the piFLOW^®p vacuum conveyor,” said Bogdan Graczyk, technical manager, Polmlek Raciaz.

“To confirm that the vacuum conveying process would indeed improve the process and avoid damages of the granules, we ran test at our inhouse demo unit and established the necessary parameters to ensure a smooth process at Polmlek,” said Tadeusz Fobke, product sales manager, Piab Poland.

In addition to solving the initial problem with product quality, the deployment of Piab’s piFLOW^®p vacuum conveyor reportedly reduced the manpower required, as the process needed less supervision. Furthermore, due to reduced machine downtimes and maintenance requirements, the production output could also be increased.

Piab’s piFLOW^®p conveyors for powders and bulk solids are reportedly matched to the high standards of operational safety and hygiene in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The machines are made of electropolished stainless steel and materials that comply with US FDA and EU 1935/2004 regulations.

As a conveying line, a suction hose made of PU is used. An internal steel spiral helps to minimize the electrostatic charge of the product or diverts it to equipotential bonding. The filter in the upper part of the conveyor is cleaned with a filter shock after each conveying cycle. The device control is in a separate control cabinet.

The piFLOW^®p conveyors are also ATEX Dust and Gas certified.

For more information, visit https://www.piab.com.