New developments of blending technology

The growing market’s confidence gained by process plants manufactured by WS, allowed a continuous development of blending technology for carbonated soft drinks (CSD) production to such an extent that the company reached a very high level of specialisation in manufacturing mass controlled blending systems, named BLENDSYSTEM M.

The realization of this kind of device is on one hand an important step in the technologic growing process planned by the firm management since the society has born and on the other hand it lays the foundations for a further business growth of the firm itself: the unit represents the top of technology which is now available on the market and allows to reach the highest performances in terms of dosing accuracy (0,03° Brix and 0,05 v/v of CO2) and of residual oxygen in water after the double stage of deaeration (lower than 0,5 ppm), which are the same performances guaranteed by the biggest bottling lines manufacturers. The BLENDSYSTEM M is a piece of equipment for preparing beverages, completely preassembled on a skid for an easy and quick shipment and installation, conceived mostly for the production of carbonated soft drinks (CSD), but also carbonated mineral water (CMW) and still water (charged with nitrogen in order to increase the mechanical resistance of the bottle). The required quantity of ingredients (water, syrup, and CO2) is carefully measured and dosed in an electronically controlled continuous process.

The whole system, realized to guarantee the highest qualitative standards and a qualitatively constant production, also running in conditions of considerable format change, is completely preassembled on stainless steel circular-section skid for an easy and efficacious cleaning.

It usually includes the following subsystems:

• inlet water deaeration: a vacuum pump removes incondensable gases; the pump is conceived to maintain the dissolved oxygen level below 1 ppm values;
• inlet water deaeration: a vacuum pump removes incondensable gases; the pump is conceived to maintain the dissolved oxygen level below 1 ppm values (below 0,5 ppm in case of double stage deaeration);
• carbon dioxide dosing: a modulating valve and a mass flow rate transmitter inject carbon dioxide in quantity that is proportional to water quantity loaded to the deaeration tank; the water flow rate is measured by a magnetic flow rate transmitter. A special gas injecting and mixing system – specifically developed by WATER SYSTEMS – performs a careful mixing with the water to be treated and, hence, best results in terms of product perlage; the carbon dioxide concentration is maintained constant in the product receiving tank by a supervising software, which checks possible fluctuations in temperature of feeding water and in product buffer tank; the effective dissolved carbon dioxide concentration in the product is checked using a carbometric unit, installed on the filling machine feeding line;
• syrup dosing and mixing: at first syrup is stored in a small buffer tank, whose atmosphere is modified and enriched with carbon dioxide, in order to avoid oxidation. Syrup injection is made by a sanitary design modulating valve and a mass flow rate transmitter in a quantity which is proportional to the water amount fed from the deaeration tank; furthermore, the use of a mass flow rate transmitter allows to check constantly the effective density of the inlet syrup and therefore to compensate immediately for the dosing and to stabilize the sugar concentration in the end product within established bounds. Analogously, when producing diet beverages, a specific refractometer allows the constant check of syrup injection also in case of flow rate fluctuations from syrup room; a second refractometer, installed on the filler feeding line, allows the continuous product check and, if necessary, its adjustment. Similarly, the instruments minimize waste of both syrup and product during transitory phases of production, such as start and stop, thence allowing water-syrup dosing ratio up to 1:1.

Furthermore, customized solutions for product cooling are available, depending on the environmental conditions of the system installation.