Food

The oils used in the production of food are varied and include canola, clove, coconut, olive, peanut, sesame, soybean, and a variety of vegetable types. These oils are used in the production of margarine and the cooking of pre-prepared foods, breads, and pastries.

There are some strict criteria when selecting the correct flow meter for these oils. Firstly, in many cases yellow metal is not compatible to some oils, so a good guide is not to use bronze materials or aluminum, which though compatible, is not a preferred material. The recommended material of construction would usually be Stainless Steel, however PPS may be acceptable in some applications where temperatures are low and where cleaning is not required. Most of these applications are batch processes ideally suited to positive displacement meters.

In the cooking of potato chips and similar products, a flowmeter is used to measure the oil quantity batched to the cooking vessel. The oil is then heated to its required temperature and the cooking process carried out. After the chips are removed from the vessel the hot oil is pumped through a fine press filter to remove particulate and then through the flow meter into the storage vessel. The reading on the return meter is subtracted from the reading on the batch in meter to ascertain the amount of oil (fat) content of the product for that particular cooking batch.

In general the viscosity of the batch to vessel product is about 100 cps and the heated oil (120° C) is about 40 cps. This is an application where accuracy over a broad range of viscosity is required. The accuracy of M-Series meters will not be affected by changes in viscosity.

It is important in the above application that a fine filter is used to collect particulate from the returned oil to prevent jamming of the rotors.

Another application is in the batching of fats into bread and pastry manufacture. These are usually pumped in cold and can be of very high viscosity, so it is important to ensure that the rules covering high viscosity application are used. This generally includes consideration of the viscosity effect on the maximum flow rate of the meter and the use of high viscosity rotors.

Fats are also used in the production of chocolate and other types of confectionary. These applications would involve similar considerations to the applications listed above.

Production plants for the extraction of the oil from the raw materials are also a large user of flow meters. These include quantity checking, additives, and bottling lines. Since these applications involve totalizing and batching, they are also ideal for positive displacement technology.

Another application is in the manufacture of Margarine. There are a number of fats, additives and colorants measured in this process where positive displacement technology is the most suitable.

Meter Models

In order to properly select the meter size and materials, we recommend you use our online sizing and selection program. This is a step by step program that will allow you to specify your fluid, flow rate, operating conditions, and outputs and ensure you choose exactly the right meter for your specific flow conditions.

To start the program, Click Here or you can Contact Us and speak to one of our application Engineers.