Finding the right hose to pump cheese

29 April 2022

A dairy company in Brazil has changed the hoses it uses hoses to pump its cream cheese product. Find out why.

The hoses produced by Aflex Hose, part of Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group, are being used in the key milk producing region of Minas Gerais in Brazil, to help reduce production costs and increase reliability of ‘requeijão’ production.

‘Requeijão’ is a spreadable variation on cream cheese, typically eaten with bread or toast, and which is also used as an ingredient in some traditional Brazilian dishes.

Due to its soft texture, when it comes to packing the product, the cream cheese has to be pumped through filling nozzles into 250ml glass jars at the dairy’s filling area.

Until recently, the filling process employed an established brand of food-grade EPDM rubber hose assemblies. However, the dynamic, rapid and repetitive filling action, together with daily clean-in-place (CIP) requirements of the production line, resulted in these hose assemblies not standing up to the rigors of the application. Typically, the dairy found that the hoses were rupturing internally, particularly in the areas where the end-fittings were crimped into the hoses. This meant that hose assembly changeouts were required at intervals of between four and six months. These frequent changeouts resulted in additional costs associated with the direct costs of replacing the hoses, and also with an increase in associated production stoppages, maintenance duties and man-hours.

Longer flex-life

The WMFTG Brazil sales engineer who supports the client, suggested that the use of Aflex FDA certified Pharmaline N hose, which has a fully CIP resistant PTFE internal liner. The hose is said to offer more than 15 times the flex-life of competitor hose products and has a much greater resistance to kinking. These attributes were important in the customer’s decision to change their hose selection.

The customer admitted that the Aflex product’s upfront price was higher than the competitor proposal; however once the dairy understood the lifetime cost savings and proposed value of a longer-lasting product, it realised that within 18 months it would be saving money on direct hose costs alone – due to the previous hoses’ required replacement frequency. Once indirect costs such as maintenance and production stoppages are also considered, the Aflex solution is a higher quality, more reliable, longer lasting and significantly better value product choice.