Best practice: customer-specific filtration solution for highly viscous media such as chocolate

Industrial filtration of highly viscous media gives rise to problems that conventional filters cannot solve. Contec Industrieausrüstung GmbH tackled this problem and modified a self-cleaning filter system for chocolate filtration. The Contec wedge wire filter with its multifaceted properties contributes to product quality by removing solids and contaminants.

The challenge:

Ludwig Weinrich GmbH & Co. KG, a chocolate manufacturer, wanted to replace the strainers (last stage before filling) with a self-cleaning filter system as a police filter upstream of the chocolate filling stage.

• Medium: chocolate
• Viscosity: 1.5-7.5 PaS
• Throughput: about 1.5 t/h
• Maximum pressure: 6 bar; maximum temperature: 40 °C
• Fineness: 1.5-2 mm to keep the chocolate from decomposing

The solution:

After a very successful test with a Contec Type AS110K Standard wedge wire filter, we modified it for this specific application:

• The filter has a hinged cover, so it is easy to open
• The filter element, complete with scraper basked, can be lifted out without tools
• The heating jacket allows the filter to be integrated into the existing trace heating system
• An integrated magnetic separator downstream of the filter element is the final guarantor of reliability
• There is a 3" drain to make emptying the filter easy

Weinrich GmbH & Co. KG installed a differential pressure monitoring system in the line and determined that pressure loss was only 0.1-0.2 bar.

Possible uses:

The low-maintenance, high-performance wedge wire filter is used by many chocolate manufacturers and processors around the world and is ideal for chocolate filtration at a range of production stages.

Contec's self-cleaning wedge wire filter can also be used in a number of processing methods for viscous foods such as cocoa paste, cocoa butter, juice, syrup, olive oil, batter and pudding, offering an effective filtration solution at viscosities of up to about 100,000 mPaS.