Ausnutria aims for a “lights out manufacturing unit” for all its new production facilities, which means no (or minimal) manual actions on the process machines in the field. To be able to process concentrated goat whey to WPC60, Ausnutria is going to install a new plant at Heerenveen which is supplied by ALPMA.
ALPMA is currently in the process of installing a new UF system with complete periphery at Ausnutria in Heerenveen, the Netherlands. Special focus is put on the interconnection of all automated components based on IoT.
The heart of the new process is a UF plant which is designed for an automatic start up and production. The product loss at production end is minimized by the Smart++ operation mode. The water demand during cleaning is reduced by a sequenced flushing of the stages.
Coming back to the digital revolution: All valves are equipped with smart control heads with 24/7 self-diagnostics. The control heads and sensors are connected to the control system on the basis of IO-Link or Profinet. This means that in addition to process data, a large number of values relating to maintenance and servicing can be determined in real time.
The periphery to run the UF plant will be supplied by ALPMA and consists of:
reception, unloading and storage of RO concentrated goat whey
storage and dispatch of WPC60 and lactose
rest milk tank and dispatch to minimize the waste water load
CIP plant to clean the complete installation
The turnkey project encompasses not only the UF plant and periphery, but also the entire automation (for which long-term partner Beenen was subcontracted).
