First of New Breed of Homogenisers for Smaller Operations Installed at Freshways
31 March 2005
The UK's first new Tetra Alex® 2 homogeniser has been installed at Nijjar Dairies Ltd’s Freshways dairy in Acton, West London by Tetra Pak Processing of High Wycombe.
The Tetra Alex® 2 homogeniser for liquid food applications is the first machine of its kind to incorporate a single combine two stage homogenising head in one unit. Accordingly, it is the ideal solution for smaller dairy operations.
At Freshways, their previous homogeniser had a flow rate of over 20,000 litres per hour. Their new Tetra Alex 2, though, has a flow rate of just 5,500 litres, using a quarter of the water of the conventional homogeniser and a quarter of the energy, which, the company estimates, saves over £11,000 per year in energy, water and effluent costs.
The Tetra Alex 2 reduces the size of fat globules in the milk and disperses them evenly by forcing the product through a small annular gap created by the forcer and the seat ring. The product passes through the gap at high velocity, causing extreme turbulence to reduce the size of the liquid droplets and solid particles. The principal benefits of the Tetra Alex 2 are that as a smaller, simpler machine than conventional large homogenisers, the Tetra Alex is more economic to purchase and cheaper to run for smaller volume operators.
Dave Watkins, factory manager for Nijjar Dairies, said: "Our old homogeniser had become tired, causing processing downtime, high maintenance costs and was far too big for our requirements. The Tetra Alex 2 has proved superior, giving more flexibility, lower production costs and better control."
According to Mr. M. M. Khan, general manager of the company, Freshways have a processing capacity of 100 million litres a year and future expansion plans during the course of this year that will strengthen their market positiuon at the same time as reducing production costs.
