A bomba Graco's Saniforce sanitary system can pump 1,500 kg of tomato paste in a record time: 10 minutes! This product is one of the most used around the world, being used in the preparation of different types of recipes. In Brazil, tomato paste is used by practically every family, from ready-made seasoned tomato sauces to ketchup.
Thanks to this large consumption, tomato paste is manufactured by several industries in the country. However, the manufacture of this product presents some challenges that are faced by the industry, as we will see below:
High viscosity slurry pumping
Most tomato pastes are manufactured with the addition of a thickener, which can make handling and transferring difficult. This high viscosity ends up making handling this material difficult, especially when transferring the product from processing to packaging.
Performing this transfer manually would be impossible depending on the size of your storage drum. In addition to requiring a large workforce, this manual processing requires a lot of time and effort on the part of the team. The dump system is also not a viable alternative, due to the possibility that during transportation, it may favor the proliferation of bacteria and other microorganisms.
Another major factor to be taken into consideration is the safety of the industrial environment during the dumping process. Due to the size of the drums used, manual unloading favors the incidence of serious accidents among workers. For this reason, it is essential to have the necessary resources for a safe and efficient transfer, as is the case with Graco's pneumatic diaphragm pump.
The food industry uses two types of pump applications in tomato paste processing:
Autonomous discharge pump: Positive displacement pumps are highly recommended for the safe and hygienic handling of highly viscous products. Due to the characteristics of tomato paste, progressive cavity and rotary lobe pumps may not be the best option.
Positive displacement pumps are able, thanks to their low shear, to transport these products without destroying their integrity. The pump structure ensures minimal, or even zero, contact with the product and the oil that is part of the pump.
These pumps also have flow handling capabilities, which the company can adjust according to their needs.
Pumps for unloading themes: in this case the pumps are used to transfer the tomato paste to another storage or processing location. The pumps are able to carry out this transfer, avoiding exposure to contaminating agents and contamination by bacteria. Pneumatic piston pumps are widely used within the food industry, as they can deliver high output pressure, even with viscous fluids.
DIAPHRAGM PUMP SANIFORCE 1590 HS – GRACO
