Achieving Efficient & Hygienic Magnetic Separation In Sensitive Dairy Powders

It is essential that magnetic separators installed in sensitive dry product lines, such as dairy powders and infant formulas, are not only high-strength and efficient but are also of sanitary design.

Poorly designed magnetic separators can pose a dangerous risk to food safety and risk bacterial or metal contamination in the final product.

Recommendations For Magnets In Dairy Powder Lines

Magnattack™ Global technicians recommend that magnetic separators in powder lines;

• Void of internal welds and ledges that may cause build-up and entrapment of powder
• Do not have stainless-steel sleeves on the outside of the magnet bars, as this allows for the possibility of powder being trapped between the inner magnet bar and the sleeve, presenting a serious potential hygiene risk
• Sanitary design and build
• Compliant with USDA dairy specifications
• Endorsed by HACCP International and designed to comply with International Food Safety Standard 0909MAGSEP 1-2010
• Have a cleaning process that ensures the least possible intrusion to product zone and does not require excess human intervention to access for cleaning
• Designed to prevent build-up and blockage of the product stream, and
• Designed to prevent build-up or binding of cleaning mechanisms and enable cleaning during operation with minimum food safety risk while the magnet is withdrawn (if automatic or self-cleaning design)

For maximum metal fragment control, it is recommended that magnets are installed in the following critical locations:

• Incoming ingredients and bulk intakes
• Prior to critical processing equipment
• Discharge of processing equipment and blenders
• Prior to metal detectors
• Immediately upstream of packing and bulk filling

Magnattack™ Global has developed a range of USDA Dairy Accepted magnetic separators that are suitable for such applications. The range includes carefully designed models of RE80™ Mag-Ram™ Self-Cleaning Grate Magnets, RE80™ Rapidclean™ Grate Magnets, and RE80™ Powder Transfer Magnets. The RE80™ Emulsion & Slurry Pipeline Magnet has also received USDA Dairy Acceptance for viscous products.

Overview of USDA-Accepted Magnets For Efficient Magnetic Separation

The Magnattack™ Global range of USDA-Dairy Accepted magnets have been engineered to effectively control presence of weakly-magnetic material, including work-hardened stainless-steel in product lines such milk, infant formulas, pharmaceutical powders, lactose powders, and other similar products.

“USDA Dairy Acceptance offers peace of mind to dairy and critical hygiene customers showing we’ve taken extensive measures to ensure engineering, sanitary design, and execution of our magnetic separation equipment, and to support in every way our customers ultimate goal of maintaining and improving food safety and risk reduction.”

Kevin Baker, Director of Magnattack™ Global.

The Mag-Ram™ Self-Cleaning Separator is an automatic self-cleaning grate magnet that requires zero human interaction in the product zone for cleaning.

This design is a highly sanitary and heavy-duty magnet that is usually installed prior to metal detectors and packing, or in high/hard-to-reach locations. It is becoming increasingly popular in food industry applications due to its ability to clean during production, with minimal reduction in magnet presence in the food zone.

The Rapidclean™ Grate Magnet is an advanced alternative to conventional grate-in-housing designs.

Two key features of the Rapidclean™ are that the magnets must be completely removed from the product zone before cleaning can be carried out and the Rapidclean™ Cleaning Tools enable efficient and safe removal of collected fragments without hand contact. These are advantageous in that they greatly reduce re-contamination risks and, unlike many other designs where all the magnets are pulled through comment wipers, the Rapidclean™ design allows for visual inspection of the magnet bars prior to return to the product flow area.

The Powder Transfer Magnet (PTM) incorporates key design features of the Spherical Pneumatic Transfer Magnet, providing highly efficient separation of metal fragments without experiencing bulk density or blockage problems. The separator features Magnattack™ RE80™ Tear Drop Probes for improved separation efficiency, aerodynamics, and optimum extraction of foreign metal contamination. The PTM can be installed in vertical installations of pneumatic transfer lines, 3”-6” in diameter.

The recently-released Emulsion & Slurry Pipeline Separator (ESPS) is a breakthrough in efficient magnetic separation in viscous dairy lines conveying such materials as ice cream and yogurt.

The ESPS can be installed in horizontal, sloping, and vertical pipelines, sized 1” – 6”. RE80™ HT Tear Drop Probes allow for very smooth transition of viscous products around the magnet with minimum resistance to flow allowing for the retention of the collected magnetics behind the magnet away from the possibility of dislodgment by the flow of product. Maximum product to magnet coverage is achieved without causing leaks, blockages, and pressure problems.

Are you curious to learn more about MAGNATTACK™ products and magnetic separation? Contact us today to start a discussion with one of our experts.

(This article was used with permissions and originally posted at www.magnattackglobal.com)