CircFood Opti-Series Pumps: Meeting the Toughest Food Processing Challenges
For many pumping and stuffing applications, across just about every food processing segment, processors can usually do well with one of the many pump systems offered by several food equipment manufacturers.
But certain products are tricky, and they require a better pumping technology. Specifically, stronger vacuum pressure combined with gentle handling are needed to deliver the quality appearance and minimal smear effect that customers demand. The most common examples are salami, pepperoni and whole-muscle chicken products which consumers are willing to pay more for because the product is simply better.
This is where CircFood comes in, and where our unique twin-piston design, invented 70 years ago, consistently meets the challenge.
“Just about any prepared and packaged food that goes into a bag, box, can, or casing has been pumped at some point,” explains CircFood Senior Applications Engineer, Brad Willsey. “And any product that has particulates or that you don’t want damaged as it gets pumped through a pipe would be a reason to use a CircFood piston pump.”
Essentially, the twin piston design allows the gentlest handling of product while delivering optimal vacuumization. The result: superior particle definition and unmatched product integrity.
What sets the CircFood pump design apart from the screw and vane-type pump systems is the unique and robust twin-piston design.
“It’s like a great big syringe that gently brings the product in and pushes it out,” says CircFood Product Manager Doug Vogelsmeier. “And even though it has pressure behind it, it’s not cutting and smearing the product. It’s delivering it in the most unadulterated way possible.”
There are three primary advantages that this unique pump design delivers:
- Better particle definition and product integrity.The system allows product to be diffused across the pump’s sheeting valve for the gentlest handling while maximizing vacuum. This highly engineered design delivers whole muscle meats and dry sausage, as well as many other food applications, with maximum particle definition, product integrity and value.
- Optimal Vacuumization.The patented twin-piston and sleeve design exposes the product to optimal removal of entrapped air, which delivers better weight control, longer shelf life and increased density. It also translates into significant savings on casing costs and shorter drying times for sausage products.
- Continuous Flow and Precise Portioning.Because constant pressure and speed is maintained with CircFood’s hydraulically powered units, processors achieve a precise metered flow for better weight control and portioning.
CircFood is best known in the meat & poultry industry, where processors have come to rely on the workhorse Opti Series to produce premium sausage and deli products in volumes ranging from 5,000 to 34,000 pounds per hour.
But many other types of food manufacturers have seen the need to contact CircFood for difficult application challenges. In some cases, processors have difficulty working with abrasive food products or extremely viscous raw materials. And many applications where other pump designs have been tried, but simply came up short.
A few examples where the CircFood pump design shines:
*Corn Chips.The raw material for corn chips is corn masa, a viscous, sheer-sensitive product. The CircFood Opti-Xtrude extruder is ideal for creating the optimal product density, allowing for maximum oil absorption, which yields a better texture and taste in the final product. It has the added benefit of minimizing product waste and extending the cooking oil shelf life.
*Lobster-filled ravioli. One pasta processor called on CircFood to pump chunks of lobster meat into a Ravioli product. The process required a gentle handing that could not be achieved with other pump designs. Using CircFood’s Opti pumps, they eliminated the “mush” factor and instead saw clearly defined lobster meat in the final product.
*Cookie Dough. Keeping the chocolate chips from smearing, while pumping up to 34,000 pounds per hour at 250 PSI can be a challenge. But CircFood pumps are ideal for this product, allowing the highest vacuum and pumping, and eliminating the need for inferior dual stage vacuumization. The twin-piston design eliminates metal-to-metal contact within the pump chamber, which translates to lower parts replacement costs and downtime.
“Since ours is a positive displacement pump without slippage, we can gently push out the dough with very little damage to the particulates,” says Willsey. “And since we do not have slippage like a screw pump, we have customers saving $100,000 plus annually on maintenance for replacement wear parts compared to the CircFood unit wear parts.”
Back to Meat
Although CircFood gets called in for a variety of unique processing challenges across the spectrum of food processing – like chocolate syrup and fish, to name just a couple more — the meat & poultry industry is the largest food segment for CircFood pumps. It’s where CircFood built its reputation with the patented twin-piston design and has more customers and installations than any other food segment.
Processors in the business of making premium meat products like salami, pepperoni and whole muscle deli meats know that density in the final product requires a better solution. And achieving that density, while maintaining the integrity of particle definition, requires a stronger pumping action that is also gentle on your product.
“Where we really excel is in the premium products”, says Vogelsmeier. “Customers who want to be on the upper end and produce the highest quality. These are products where superior particle definition and a denser product is required,”
Products that your customer’s customer will pay a premium – and keep coming back for more.
