During the packaging of chicken at Esbro, the various chicken parts are packed under a protective atmosphere. Since some products such as chicken parts have to be packed with a special gas mixture, this gas mixture can be explosive in certain circumstances. This requires certain measures so that the gas cannot come into contact with ignition sources or highly flammable substances (such as oil mist in a vacuum pump).
Esbro has asked IVS to offer a solution for packaging chicken with a gas mixture that has special requirements for new construction. The system must be suitable for the installation of several packaging lines, whereby the pumps must be installed in the engine room elsewhere in the building, with which the technology, heat input and any service activities must be moved outside the production area. The structure of the system must be modularly expandable and there must be a certain degree of redundancy.
IVS has supplied a pump system. This system consists of several small pumps that are suitable for the specific application at Esbro BV. Due to the small capacity per pump, capacity can easily be switched on and off, depending on the vacuum requirement. This makes the system energy efficient and is also easy to expand and redundant. The pipe system is made of stainless steel pipe with a large diameter, so that the pipe resistance is minimal and it also serves as a buffer. The choice for stainless steel offers the following advantages compared to PVC:
The cost price of such a stainless steel system is competitive with respect to PVC, since the bend and fitting pieces of PVC are expensive. In addition, PVC is thick-walled, which means that the content is smaller with the same outer diameter and in some cases it is necessary to switch to larger dimensions.