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Hose promises a long life in pumping applications

23 May 2023

Find out why the largest dairy products group in the world switched the hoses it uses to pump fruit filling milk and yoghurt at two of its production facilities.

Dairy company, Lactalis has 270 production sites in 52 countries. At its production facility in Serbia the company made a decision to replace its previously used rubber hoses with two long-life FaBLINE hoses that are 2m in length and have a bore size of 2in to transfer milk and yoghurt and fruit paste.

Lactalis had become unhappy with the short hose life offered by the rubber hoses it had been using in one particular application. The hose covers were wearing out every few months due to the hose being dragged along the floor.

Commenting on the change, Aleksandar Rnjak, Maintenance Manager at Somboled, part of the Lactalis Group, said: “The hoses for this application are exposed to a clean-in-place operation before production. After hanging the hoses on the fruit paste container they are rinsed and sterilised at 138? with steam at 3.5 bar pressure in the line. The new hoses have shown good durability and flexibility, and the safety of the operators has increased when connecting the tank with fruit paste to the system on the yoghurt line.”

FaBLINE is a PTFE-lined kink-free hose, with standard 316 stainless steel braid and an EPDM cover, all designed to ensure efficient product transfer and handling with a long working life when compared to the rubber hose alternatives. It is available from Aflex, part of Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions.

The new hose has been in use at the facility for a year now and it is regularly cleaned with CIP chemicals without any change. Even if the outer protection comes away or gets damaged when the hose is dragged along the floor, the hose doesn’t lose its integrity, which eliminates the potential for premature failure.

Replacing silicone rubber hoses
At another Lactalis’ production facility, in Croatia, the company has again switched to the use of  FaBLINE hoses on a filling machine which handles yoghurt and yoghurt fruit filling. A total of 16 of the long-life hoses – all under 0.8m in length and with a bore size of 0.375in – have replaced the previously used silicone rubber hoses, which were coming to the end of their lives and the risk of contamination became too high. 

Commenting on this application, Marin Cosic, Deputy Head of Maintenance at Dukat Dairy Industry Inc, part of the Lactalis Group, said: “On the yoghurt and fruit filling machine, the working conditions are demanding in terms of sterilisation temperatures of up to 138? and exposure to acids and alkalis for cleaning the hoses through which the product passes. With the aim of avoiding contamination of the product, we decided to install the FaBLINE hose on the machine for filling yoghurt and fruit yoghurts.”

Lactais measured its original connectors to ensure that the FaBLINE hose was able to provide an exact match while offering increased service life and reduced maintenance, as constant dynamic movement poses no problems for the hose.


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