The Tetra Pak In-line Blender D is an automation platform that continuously collects data and controls blending.
Increased savings
Helen Sellar, product manager, Tetra Pak Dairy & Beverage Systems, said ingredients for formulated products can be expensive.
“Precision of blending means consistent quality, less ingredient give-away and more cost savings for customers, and that is exactly what this new machine seeks to offer,” she said.
She used an example of milk production with 3.0% fat.
The new Tetra Pak In-line Blender D produces at a minimal variation of +/- 0.015 grams per 100 ml, down from the average 0.050 grams in a conventional system.
With a production capacity of 20,000 liters per hour, operating 20 hours per day and 350 days per year, this could mean an annual saving of up to €180,000 ($205,600) for a manufacturer.
Handling ingredients
The blender’s capacity is 5,000 to 75,000 liters per hour.
The Tetra Pak In-line Blender D handles a variety of recipes, including flavored milk, cheese milk, standardized milk for dairy powders, lactic acid drinks, condensed milk and liquid formulated products, amongst others.
It can accommodate to 11 individual ingredient streams simultaneously, with all ingredient and product parameters managed using a mass balance equation.
The company said, with inline production, product flows through the system continuously, which is economical for larger production volumes and, since it requires fewer tanks (compared to batch production), product losses caused by hold-up volumes are reduced.
Continuous production requires fewer buffer tanks, resulting in a reduction in overall consumption of utilities. The removal of one 20,000 liter tank, the company said, reduces water consumption by 600m3 a year, power by 26,400 kWh a year, and CO2 emissions by 13 tonnes a year.