Consumers are drawn to visually appealing products. They smell, taste and experience many flavour explosions. Aromas make this possible. They give products their particular flavour or odour. The aromas have to be added in precisely the quantities required to achieve the desired flavour. ProMinent’s metering pumps are ideal for these tasks. They meter with great accuracy and also comply with existing hygiene guidelines.
Metering pumps are needed for many purposes in the food industry. They are used to add vitamin D to milk and aromas to sweets, for example. The delicious taste of chocolate, for example, is influenced by carefully metered quantities of flavour additives. This involves the use of solenoid-driven metering pumps, which require high precision. They have to accurately meter small quantities of liquid additive.
Aromatic chocolate
One of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the premium sector has satisfied these exacting requirements. The company was looking for fully accurate metering of a whole host of aromas into its chocolate. It also needed to ensure the absolute reproducibility of the aroma metering process. The flavour additives need to always be added to the raw mass in the same, specified, precise quantities. Only then will each bar of chocolate or each individual praline taste just like the next one. They also taste of strawberry, vanilla or any other flavour that the company chooses to manufacture today, tomorrow or at some point in the future. Always the same hint and always the same flavour.
This is achieved through the use of solenoid-driven metering pumps, which meter to the required accuracy and, most importantly, with highly precise repeatability. Pumps with other drives are not able to meet these requirements. The type of chocolate determines how much aroma concentrate is added.
Before starting to use the metering pumps, the manufacturer ran extensive tests to determine whether the production and quality requirements were being met. For example, the accurate metering of 0.01 to 1 percent of aroma concentrate with an accuracy of around 2 percent of the metered volume. And the test was run at 0.5 to 1.5 bar of pressure at the point of injection. The metering was tested with various aromas with densities of between 0.8 and 1.2 g/ml. The accuracy of metering when adding various concentrations was also tested. Depending on batch, the company requires metering of 80 to 8.000 ml an hour to achieve an aroma concentration of 0.01 to 1 percent. Only once the tests had been passed, did the manufacturer move onto selecting the pumps and flow meters to use.
In this case, the choice fell on the solenoid diaphragm metering pump gamma / X in FDA design. The connection to the higher-level control room with PLC is via ProfiNet. ProfiNet enables higher operational performance, for example by providing real-time data or direct access of the units. Fast data communication is guaranteed, supplemented by industrial IT functions. The user also attached great importance to a separate monitoring of the dosed quantity. This requirement was a benefit for ProMinent: Pumps with corresponding accessories from one source. Gamma/ X Pumps according to FDA-directive in combination with a measuring device, which reliably records pulsating flows in the range above 0.03 ml/stroke based on the ultrasound measuring principle. It was developed specifically for measuring small pulsating volumetric flows. It is installed around 15 cm downstream of the metering pump, that there is still sufficient pulsation in the volumetric flow. All liquids that conduct ultrasound waves can be measured. All accessories are produced from stainless steel, pipes in PTFE and stainless steel. PTFE was also required instead of PE due to less flexibility, in order to minimize pulsation dumper on the volume of pipes (especially before Dulcoflow).
Simple, intuitive operation
Intuitive operation and simple programming of all the pump parameters needed are key for error-free operation. A minimal number of controls ensures rapid adjustment of individual parameters, such as stroke length, frequency and metering profile. A click wheel and some push-buttons are all that are needed to quickly access parameters or functions at different menu levels. Specifying the capacity in litres per second avoids laborious conversions and allows the setting to be made quickly and easily.
Compliant with food standards
The use of operating materials, which comply with EU 10/2011, Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) EG Ordinance 2023/2006 or the FDA guidelines is essential for use in hygienically sensitive production areas in the food and beverage industry. ProMinent modified the design of its motor-driven and solenoid-driven metering pumps in order to meet these guidelines and ordinances. They hygienically meter aromas, colouring and additives, as well as enzyme solutions in the food and beverage industry with ease, great precision and care. In this way it is possible to reproduce nearly all liquid products of the food and beverage industry at any time, in terms of both flavour and appearance.
Summary
Any initial concerns were eliminated during the test phase. The confectionery producer is not only able to meter the various aroma concentrates in quantities of 80 to 10,000 milliliters a second with great accuracy, more importantly, the company can also monitor and document reproducibility accurately with reliable measurements, both at low and high concentrations. Pumps and Dulcoflow, calibrated with various aromas, relative coefficients were added to PLC recipes.
