Chocolate Snack Production

"Maintenance cycles reduced from 5 days to 4 months!"

the challenge

A leading confectionery group with establishments all over the globe, which produces chocolate and cream-filled snacks, experienced problems with their screw pumps. The maintenance team in their facility in Europe struggled to preserve the screw pumps for raw material (cream and chocolate) processing. Their original sealing solution was the use of traditional packings, however, they had to be replaced weekly.

Chocolate and cream's tendency to crystallise presented a problem on the rotating pump shafts. This combined with the abrasion of the particles of chocolate and sugar were causing fast and heavy wear of the packings. As a result, due to recurrent seal replacements, reducing process line production. Moreover, the risk of contamination of the batch was very high due to heavy wear.

the solution

Through an in-depth assessment and discussion with the customer's maintenance team, the decision has been made that the best solution was to replace the packings with an advanced shaft seal solution. Garlock PS-SEAL® with GYLON® Blue Style 3504 lip material was chosen due to its ability to provide the required level of compliance to industry standards by using the modified PTFE structure which provides low friction and elasticity required.

the result

Consequently, PS-SEAL® has substantially reduced the maintenance cycles from every 5 days to every 4 months. This allows process line production to run without any unscheduled maintenance and reduces the risk of contamination significantly. Following the success of the PS-SEAL® solution, it was implemented in all pumps and has been made the standard sealing solution.