Nocado products to the benefit of the fruit juice industry

(This article was written in contract with Nocado)

In the fruit juice industry still a lot of owners personally started their business by working with rubber boots in the production area. Because they remember how hard it is to earn their money, they think twice, before they will spent it.

Even most of the production process is comparable to the brewing and beverage industry, still the equipment used might be different from the other liquid food industries. Since most juice was hot filled into glass bottles, the requirements for highly hygienic installations seemed to be less important. Mohno pumps and standard ball valves have been commonly used. The hygienic understanding has widely changed and today visitors are normally welcomed to see the very hygienic production of a natural product in many fruit juice manufacturing plants.

A lot of people have had bad experiences when choosing equipment, that was not originally designed for the fruit juice industry. Not the big decisions like selecting a labeller have made the problems, but the little thinks like choosing the right valves did often give you a headache afterwards.

With smaller growing markets, the suppliers have to spent a lot of money on advertisements. And smart marketing experts will promise everything to get their share of the market. But without honesty, a long term business relationship is not possible. Only a very few suppliers show the
· continuity that especially family owned businesses can guarantee as well as the
· ability to develop new equipment that perfectly suits their customer needs.

One of these companies is the nocado Armaturenfabrik located in the very far north west of Germany. After they proofed for almost 40 years that they produce the most reliable butterfly valve, they now have developed a complete new range of diaphragm valves as well as the most sophisticated product recovery system on the market.

With the mechanically-pneumatically controlled velocity of the patented ball-lip-pig it is possible to recover most of the product at the end of production or at product changeovers. In a lot of installations the roi (return on investment) is shorter than one year.

It can be used for any kind of product, with and without pulp. Often it is used to separate two similar products without an intermediate rinse. Double ball and double lip pigs are commonly known. They have to be “double”, so that they do not tumble around in the line. Double ball pigs are normally used, if many bends are installed in the line, because only the ball shape guarantees always the right angle to the pipe wall when travelling through bends. The double lip pig has an advantage in long straight lines, because of the advanced scraper characteristic. But for these functions just one ball or one lip is necessary, the second one is present just to keep the pig straight in the line.

nocado now went the very simple and logical way, to combine a lip and a ball pig to achieve the advantages of both designs. Because nobody else did it before, they achieved a patent for it. Even it is not symmetrical, there is no front or back, that will mean, the pig can travel in both directions with the same performance.

The live time cycle of a pig depends on the quality of the piping installation and on the controlled travelling speed of the pig. Most nocado installations are not orbital but only hand welded and just the standard equipment and fittings of the nocanorm program were used. A unique mechanically-pneumatically operated controller guarantees an optimum travelling speed for a maximum life cycle. A pig is a wear part and will never last forever. With these standard installations the expected life time of a nocado pig is at least 200 km.

The diaphragm valves are mainly used for cold aseptic processes. They are available for the functions
· shut off
· pressure relief (e.g. for self displacement pumps)
· pressure holding (e.g. at the outlet of flash pasteurizers)
· full stroke safety (e.g. on top of a tank also as a safety for overfilling)
· sampling (always as manual and automatic operation for automated cip processes)

The nocado diaphragm valves are not comparable to the commonly used type in “kidney shape”.
· The ball housing is made out of solid forged stainless steel,
· all valves have a metallic stop for a minimum stress to the gasket
· a unique stainless steel support of the diaphragm allows the full pressure on all in- and outlet connections in open as well as in closed condition
· leakage control,
· no dead ends and
· a computer optimised flow pattern even for non turbulent flow show the leadership in this field of aseptic valves.

Because of a highly efficient production it is astonishing how low the prices are compared to the offered quality and features.

To assure the high quality the customer expects, not only a very hygienic production is necessary, but also a quality assurance system that tests the product and the by-products during the production and assures that the product produced will always be within the specifications.

Therefore sample valves are needed. Simple sample cocks are still in use, there advantage is, that they do not require gaskets so they can easily heat sterilized. Which is often done extensively. Unfortunately, they are not very hygienic, because when they get closed a small portion of product will always remain within the valve unless it has a three way housing, which is extremely uncommon for sampling cocks. Normally sampling cocks are more or less leaking, and even if only water is dripping into drain, the value of all these drops during one year very often is higher than the value of the sampling cock. For everybody who was born after 1950 it seems to be kept a secret, how a sample cock in a bad shape can be grinded back into a new like one within a coffee break.

Piston type sampling valves are much easier to operate and to maintain. Even they might be double the price of a simple sample cock, they are worth every cent just because of the leakage they normally do not have and they are cip-able, that means, they do not have to be taken apart for cleaning. But during cip they have to be operated manually. Normally it is no problem at all, that the operator is opening the sampling valves during cip, but very often it is a problem to close them at the right time. After the final rinse, the plant has to be considered to be clean. If now a sampling valve stays open, atmospheric air can enter the lines and might contaminate the surfaces that will be in contact with the product afterwards. Therefore, not only for cold aseptic processes, many customers are using the nocado aseptic diaphragm sample valve as a hygienic sampling valve for fully automated cip and sip processes. This sample valve is normally manually operated like any other sampling valve, but for cip it is equipped with a pneumatic cylinder, so that it can get operated automatically during the cip cycle and especially it will be automatically closed when the cip or sip cycle is over.

Because only a very countable number of sampling valves are installed in the production area the prices for the sampling valves should have a low priority. Normally the value of all sampling valves together is far less than the product is worth that is produced within the time between testing and achieving the results of the testing.

Today for any installation a risk analysis should be done, and who ever thought about the risk, will always install high quality sampling valves.

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