In a soft drink plant for a customer in Scandinavia, for reasons of cleanability and hygiene, a float level sensor was not accepted. On the advice of the application specialists at Smeri srl, the Anderson-Negele sales partner in Italy, a test was carried out with the potentiometric level sensor NSL-M: And thanks to its perfect function, it was not removed any more before the handover to the end customer. Since then, the system has functioned smoothly for the end customer, and S.I.P.A. will use NSL technology for their systems in the future.
Application Details
Degassing
The entire soft drink system consists of several components that create great challenges for the measurement and control technology. In the first part, the degassing tank, oxygen is removed from the water to prevent taste deviations due to oxidation. For this purpose, a vacuum is created in the tank and the gas is extracted. For reliable processes, maximum efficiency and consistent quality, highly precise volume measurement, even under vacuum, is essential here.
Carbonation
After the mixing process of water and syrup according to different recipes, in the next step, the liquid is enriched with CO2. This carbonation takes place under high pressure up to the specified value. The end product is stored in a stacking tank while maintaining the pressure until filling. Here, too, the precise and above all fast (less than 100 ms) measurement of the level is decisive for controlling the process and to maintain a constant level.
The Anderson-Negele solution:
The hygienic level sensor for extreme process conditions NSL
In the production process itself and in the CIP cleaning processes, the measuring instruments are exposed to extreme conditions. In particular, these are:
- High negative pressure (vacuum) during degassing
- High positive pressure (up to 95 PSI / 6.6 bar) during carbonation
- Strong foaming of the media (sparkling soft drinks)
- Fast temperature changes between process, CIP cleaning and rinsing
- Direct spray water on the probe during CIP cleaning, yet full function and measuring accuracy
- Dense steam that can negatively influence other measuring methods
S.I.P.A. has so far installed float sensors for level control in such systems. However, these no longer meet the current requirements for cleanability and hygiene. With the NSL-M, S.I.P.A. has a solution which, thanks to a highly developed potentiometric measuring system, has proven itself with its high precision even under these rough conditions. This ensures smooth operation with maximum product quality, process reliability and efficiency.
Advantages in the application:
- Hygienic, easy to clean level measurement
- Reliable function and high measuring accuracy even under extreme positive pressure and vacuum
- Precise level measurement even during the CIP process, unaffected by spray water and boiling water
- Foam insensitive measurement
