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Noosa Yoghurt Cuts Downtime, Product Loss With Valve Upgrade

The TrueClean CIP’able air blow check valve from Central States Industrial enabled the yogurt maker to save hours of downtime and many pounds of product every week, with an expected savings of $350,000 a year.

Noosa Production2
Noosa Yoghurt

Process downtime can be costly. Almost 80% of facilities are unable to estimate their downtime accurately, and those that try often underestimate their total downtime cost (TDC) by 200-300%. Processors who take reducing TDC seriously have the potential for a massive ROI through process improvements.

Located 70 miles north of Denver in a small agricultural community, Noosa Yoghurt has grown quickly in the nine years since selling at local farmers markets to distribution nationwide. With this rapid growth has come a need for increased output to meet demand—and, in turn, the need to find new ways to decrease downtime for system cleaning while maintaining sanitary standards and increasing product recovery.

Reducing lost time and product

Noosa sought to improve its processing and reduce TDC in three primary areas. First, fruit line piping must be cleaned after each fruit flavor in a 40-minute changeover process that repeats 12-13 times per week. In addition to the TDC for clean-in-place (CIP) procedures, Noosa lost about 15.5 lb of product during each cleaning cycle—totaling more than 200 lbs. of product lost each week. Second, Noosa was losing 115 lbs. of product each time the honey-recirculation line was cleaned, for weekly losses totaling 345 lbs. Finally, depending on the specific product recipe running through the blending skid, Noosa lost an additional 65-95 lb of product each week during cleaning.

The TrueClean air blow check valve installed on a fruit line.The TrueClean air blow check valve installed on a fruit line.Central States IndustrialIn addition to product losses, Noosa was using water and chemical rinses to power through lines filled with product. All-in-all, Noosa recognized the potential to save thousands of dollars each month through better product recovery and system cleaning.

One way that Noosa looked to improve the evacuation of its product lines and increase product recovery was through check valves, which are used to push residual product downstream at the end of a process while preventing product backfill during cleaning. Nick Hansen, Noosa’s improvement engineer, set out to find a sanitary air blow check valve to do the job.

Capable of clean in place

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