NEW CV-COS FROM TLV HELPS GREENCORE INCREASE PRODUCTION OF SAUCES AND SOUPS

Phil Black - PII Editor 10/05/2011

105 2 minutes read

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Bristol-based Greencore Chilled Sauces and Soups produces a range of own-branded cooking sauces and fresh soups for supermarket customers such as Asda, Co-op and Sainsburys. Since acquiring the Bristol site from Hazlewood Foods in 2001 Greencore has invested heavily in new cooking and filling equipment to increase production capacity and output at the site, and has standardised on associated steam processing equipment from steam specialist TLV Euro Engineering.

More recently, the focus of the Greencore engineering team has been to increase the efficiency of the ten cooking vessels at the site, as engineering manager Spencer Wills explains. “When the vessels were first installed they were fitted with standard TLV Pilot Valves which, from a cold start provided 1.5 bar of steam pressure in the jacket for the initial stages of cook. However, we realised that in order to increase the productivity of the process we needed to increase the efficiency of the heat transfer, and TLV suggested fitting its new CV-COS electro-pneumatic pressure reducing valve, which combines a convenient control function with a pressure reducing valve, separator and steam trap in one compact unit.”

The new valve, which is designed for process applications requiring automatic control of the pressure, temperature and the flow rate of steam, maintains a constant pressure in the jacket from start-up. Besides significantly improving heat transfer – and therefore efficiency and productivity – the CV-COS also provides Greencore with the ability to easily change pressure in order to cook different sauces.

In addition, having an integral separator and steam trap means that the CV-COS provides consistently good steam quality at point-of-use, which also contributes to the efficiency of the production process.

Summing up, Spencer Wills says the TLV package ticks all the boxes and the success of the CV-COS installation is expected to significantly improve the productivity and efficiency of the vessels.

“In our business we can’t afford to work with companies that don’t deliver on their promises.” He says: “TLV supplies all the equipment we need and some products, such as the CV-COS and Free-Float steam traps, have features that other suppliers don’t. All their equipment has proved reliable, their engineers are knowledgeable and the service is responsive.”

Quoting the recent project as an example he says the CV-COS installation was scheduled for the weekend to avoid process down-time, but when the unit itself arrived it had been damaged in transit. “It wasn’t TLV’s fault,” he says: “but they delivered a replacement on the Saturday morning so that we didn’t have to interrupt Monday’s production.”

For further information contact:

Michael Povey, TLV Euro Engineering UK Limited
Star Lodge, Montpellier Drive, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 1TY
Phone: +44 (0) 1242 227223, Fax: +44 (0) 1242 223077
E-mail: michaelpovey@tlv.co.uk Web: www.tlv.com